of Auchleuchries are biographised in the "Scottish Nation" and the "Dictionary of National Biography;" see also, regarding the former, "Some Memories of an Old House and of its Occupants," by the late Earl of Caithness in Scottish Notes and Queries, i. (Second Series), 88. Gordon's career is also recounted in his own diary-"Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries, 1655 to 1699," edited by Joseph Robertson (Spalding Club, 1859), and in "The Diary of General Patrick Gordon during his Military Service with the Swedes and Poles from the year 1655 to 1661, and his Residence in Russia from the year 1661 to 1699. Published completely for the first time by Prince M. A. Obolenski and M. C. Posselt, Ph. D., Moscow, 1849-1853," 3 vols. See review of this latter work in Edinburgh Review, July 1856; see also "Peter the Great" by Oscar Browning (London, 1898); "Sketches of the Military History and Military Heroes of Buchan" in Aberdeen Weekly Free Press, 28 September7 December, 1872; "Notable Aberdeenshire Families" in Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 7 and 14 September, 1898; "A Buchan Soldier of Fortune" in Peterhead Sentinel, 23 December, 1899-13 January, 1900; "The Gordons in Poland " by J. M. Bulloch in Scottish Notes and Queries, xii., 23; and John Hill Burton's "The Scot Abroad." For the Gordons of Pitlurg, reference is made to "John Gordon of Pitlurg and Parkhill, by his Widow " (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1885); for the Turings and Forbeses of Foveran to the "Thanage of Fermartyn" and Scottish Notes and Queries, ix. ; and for Knockhall to the "Castles of Aberdeenshire" and the "Castellated and Domestic Architecture."

Hill Burton, in his account of Gordon of Auchleuchries, has this amusing passage-" There is something savouring of granite and east wind in the harsh nomenclature of Gordon's surroundings. The paternal estate-dreary and sterile enough, no doubt-bore the name of Auchleuchries, of old a dependency of the barony of Ardendraught. Then we have among his ancestry Ogilvy of Blarac, and the Gordons of Pitlurg, of Straloch, and of Coclarachy, and their feudal foe, Strachan of Auchnagat, and Patrick's neighbour, Buchan of Auchmacoy, with whom, after he has become a great man, he has a merry

rouse and a reminiscence of auld langsyne at my Lord Chancellor's table. To such topographical characteristics might be added Bothmagoak, Ardendracht, Auchmedane, Auchmyliny, Kynknoky, Auchquhorteis, Creichie, Petuchry, and others equally adapted for pronunciation by Cockney lips."

It may be incidentally mentioned, in connection with the reference to the barony of Ardendraught, that the Stephen family, which has contributed so many men of eminence to literature and the public service, including the late Sir Fitzjames Stephen and Mr. Leslie Stephen, is descended from James Stephen of Ardendraught, Cruden (See Scottish Notes and Queries, xi., 168).

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE

NATURAL FEATURES OF BUCHAN.*

`HE natural features of Buchan have already been indicated in a general way (pp. 11-14), and, in addition, it will suffice to quote the following from a "Succinct Account of the General Geological Character of the District," drawn up for the third edition of this work by Mr. Thomas F. Jamieson, F.G.S., LL.D., Mains of Waterton, Ellon-" When we survey the district of Buchan from the brow of Bennachie, or some other outpost of the Grampians, it looks like a great undulating plain, spreading out from the mountains to the sea-a monotonous earthcovered expanse of granite and gneiss, bare, bleak, and brown, with hardly a tree on its surface; a region well enough adapted for agriculture, but not very promising to the geologist. Nevertheless, it will be found on closer examination to present many features of interest."

CLIMATE. Dr. James Anderson, in his "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Aberdeen,"

*The contents of this and the following chapter (embracing portions of Chaps. I. and II. in former editions) are left substantially as written by Dr. Pratt-written, that is, for the first edition, published in 1858—some material in the Appendix to the third edition (1870) being incorporated, however, and the section on "Climate" being amended and added to by a Note from Mr. John Joiner, New Deer.

drawn up for the Board of Agriculture in 1793, gives the following account of the climate of the county, which may be considered as especially applicable to Buchan-" From the high latitude of this district, and the general opinion that is entertained of the inhospitable nature of these northern regions, most persons are inclined to believe that a much greater degree of cold here takes place than is ever experienced. Being washed by the sea on two sides, the county of Aberdeen experiences a mildness of temperature in winter even greater than most parts of the island. Snow, in the lower parts of the county, seldom lies long; and it may be considered as a pretty general rule that when snow is one foot deep at Aberdeen, it is nearly two feet deep at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. .

I have reason to believe that the frost is seldom so intense in the lower parts of Aberdeenshire as at London. But if the winter's cold be less severe than in many of the southern districts of the island, the summer heats are here, perhaps, still less intense. In short, there is a smaller variation between the heat and cold at different seasons; and, of course, there are many crops that may be brought to maturity in the south of Britain which are seldom found to ripen here. Grapes there are none without artificial heat, and French beans can scarcely be brought to ripen their seeds, in the best-sheltered garden, unless in a very favourable season. The great disadvantage attending the climate of Aberdeenshire, and of Scotland in general, when compared with that of the southern part of the island, is the lateness of the spring, owing to the prevalence of eastern winds, and the too frequent fogs and rains at that season, which often render the

seed-time both late and ungenial. As a proof that the climate is not uncommonly backward, I may observe," continues Dr. Anderson, "that one season (1779) I had a dish of pease gathered from the open field, cultivated by the plough, on the King's birthday, the 4th of June. Green pease are commonly ripe in the garden not long after that period."

On this passage Dr. Keith remarks, and the remark is fully corroborated by Mr. Joiner's figures given farther on— "The climate of the lower part of Aberdeenshire is certainly moderate in this respect, that it is not nearly so warm in summer nor so cold in winter as that of the county of Middlesex. From the great length of Aberdeenshire, extending from the north-east extremity on the sea coast, in an oblique direction, beyond the middle of the island, it is obvious that there there must be a wide difference between the climate of Peterhead, where the coast of Buchan projects so far into the German Ocean, and that of the mountainous districts in the south-west point of Mar, nearly 100 miles from Cairnbulg-head, and both at a high elevation from the level of the sea, and at nearly an equal distance from the east and west coasts." Dr. Keith goes on to say, that "the above is a pretty correct account of the state of the climate on the coast both of Formartine and Buchan. There the climate is peculiarly moderate in the winter months, and the snow seldom lies long; nor are the ploughs much impeded by the frost, being seldom idle above two or three weeks, even in a severe. winter. On the other hand, on the south sides of hills, and in sheltered places in the higher districts, the heat is frequently much greater in