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Old-Lore Miscellany

Page 5

THE REV. ALEXANDER POPE, REAY,
CAITHNESS.
IV.
(Continued from Vol. III., p. 223).

        A very course fellow, occupying a small farm, kept a mistress, by whom he had two children. Cited to appear before the Session, he obeyed the summons, and, in a few words, made his statement of the case. Mr. Pope pointed out to him the sinfulness of his conduct, and insisted that, in conformity to the law and discipline of the church, he should make a public profession of his repentance by appearing before the congregation on the following Sabbath to be rebuked. 'Before I submit to any such thing,' said the farmer, 'you may pluck out my last tooth.' 'We shall see,' replied the minister, dismissing him. This Session meeting was held on a Monday, and it was agreed before the close, that three of the strongest elders should repair to the farmer's house next Sabbath morning, and forcibly bring him to church. When Sabbath came this was done. The elders went to the man's house about ten o'clock, and, after a stout conflict, he was mastered, bound with rope and marched to church. One of the elders now went to Mr. Pope for further instructions. 'Bind him to one of the seats before the pulpit,' said Mr. Pope, 'and sit one of you on each side of him till the service is finished.' His orders were obeyed. At the close of the service, before pronouncing the Benediction, Mr. Pope rose to reprove the offender. 'You told us,' said the minister, 'that we might pull the last tooth out of your head before you would submit to be where you are, but,' pointing his finger in scorn at him, and uttering one of the most contemptuous sounds with his breath between his lips, which can be better imagined than described, he added, 'Poor braggart, where are you now?' The address was in Gaelic, and the peculiar expression is given below. (17) The fellow duly served discipline, but the epithet applied to him on this occasion stuck to him for life, and to his family for several generations. During the course of his ministry many of Mr. Pope's parishioners advanced in the knowledge of the truth and also in the arts of civilised life. Ale and whisky drinking was discontinued on the Sabbath evenings, though too much indulged in on week days. One evening the landlady of the tavern came to him with the complaint that six men from a distance, who had come in the forenoon, had continued drinking ever since, that they refused to leave, and were now fighting with each other, and that she was afraid they would break all her furniture, and set the house on fire. After reproving her for keeping so disorderly a house, Mr. Pope directed her to get a ladder and place it against the back wall of her dwelling, to fill so many tubs of water, leaving them at the foot of the ladder, and to await his coming. All this was done, and in about half-an-hour thereafter, when the topers were holding high carnival within, Mr. Pope, seizing one of the tubs, mounted the ladder, and, sitting astride the roof, removed some thatch and turf, and emptied the contents of the tub upon the Bacchanalians below. This was followed by a second and third downpour as quickly as Mr. Pope could be furnished with the tubs of water from below, with which he was readily supplied by the active co-operation of the landlord and his wife. The consequence of this ready method with the drinkers may be easily conceived. Their coats were drenched, and, like as many bull-dogs under similar treatment, they let go their hold of each other and rushed out. Coming to understand, however, that the landlord and his wife had a hand in the matter, they were about to deal with them rather roughly; but Mr. Pope had already descended from aloft, and, with 'the bailie' in his hand, stood beside them. It was enough, they all scampered off." (18)
        During his arduous ministerial labours Mr. Pope was busy with his pen, and his writings dealing with antiquarian subjects place him in the front rank of antiquaries of his day. Appendix V. in Pennant's Tour is from Mr. Pope's pen, and deals with statistics and antiquities of Caithness and Sutherland. In 1777 a letter of Mr. Pope, entitled "The Description of the Dune of Dornadilla, by the Rev. Alexander Pope, Minister of Reay, in a letter to Mr. George Paton, of Edinburgh, communicated by Mr. Gough," (19) was read to the London Society of Antiquaries. From this letter it would appear that Pope had given much interesting information to Bishop Pococke for his Tours in Scotland, 1747, 1750, 1760, though the Bishop makes no acknowledgement of the same. Possibly the chief work on which Mr. Pope's fame as a writer rests in his translation of the Orcades seu rerum Orcadensium Historiæ, by Thormodus Torfæus. Extracts from this translation are given in Cordiner's "Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scotland in a Series of Letters to Thomas Pennat, Esquire." The translation is not quite complete. The translator says:---"I have omitted many passages contained in this author. But these were either genealogies of Norwegian families, or long chronological disputes, or else tedious paragraphs from the history of other nations, which had little or no connection with the history of these countries I have mentioned, but as to what concerned any part of Scotland I have not omitted the least hint, so that a connection is more visible thro' the whole by omitting these things." Pope's MS. has passed through certain vicissitudes which have given it an interest to Northern book-collectors. Prepared in 1780 for the Press its publication was delayed owing to Pope's death in 1782. After a lapse of sixty years it was printed in the columns of the John O' Groat Journal in instalments. When the work was nearly finished the transcriber died, and the MS., with a biographical sketch of the author, written by the Rev. D. Sage, Resolis, for the proposed volume, went a-missing. Publication was delayed for twenty years in the hope of discovering the missing copy, but without avail. The sheets that were printed were then bound together and issued from the John O' Groat Journal office in 1866, under the title, History of Orkney, Caithness and the North, by Thormodus Torfæus. It was only in 1905 the original MS. was discovered in the catalogue of a London bookseller by Mr. John Mowat, the author of A Bibliography of Caithness, and bought for the Wick Free Library, in whose custody it now is. (20)
                                                                        HISTORICUS
                                        (To be continued.)

ACKERGILL TOWER, CAITHNESS.
(See frontispiece)

        There is no record of the building of Ackergill Tower, but the lands of Ackergill were first recorded as possessed by Sir Ranald or Reginald le Cheyne. Among those who joined in 1290 in recommending marriage between Edward, son of Edward I., and the maid of Norway, were Ranald le Chen, the father, and Ranald le Chen, the son. (Acta Parl. Scot. Vol. i. 5, quoted Orig. Par. Scot. ii. 2). There were three Ranald Cheynes.
        Reginald Cheyne, "Morar na Shean," son of the daughter, and co-heiress, of Freskyn de Moravia (through whom says Calder's Caithness---ch. v.---he obtained Duffus in Moray) owned extensive lands in Caithness. He was made prisoner at Halidon Hill in 1333, when Kenneth, Earl of Sutherland, was killed. He died in 1350, and his estate was divided between his daughters, Marjorie and Mariotta (or Mary).
        In 1337, Nicolas, second son of Kenneth, third Earl of Sutherland, ancestor of the Sutherlands of Duffus, married the elder daughter, and received with her Auld Wick and other lands to the south of the water of Wick, and the younger co-heiress married John, second son of Keith, the Earl Marischal, and received the lands of Ackergill and others. The story of the co-heiresses is given in ch. v. of Calder's Caithness, and however much be legend:---
        All the lands apperteyning to Reynold Cheyn, were divyded among his daughters (Sir R. Gordon's Hist. Earls Sutherland, 1651, section xii.) which wes confirmed unto them by King David Bruce, his charter of Confirmation. One of Reynold Cheyne his daughters wes mareid to Nicolas Southerland (this Earle William, his brother) with whom this Nicolas had the Cheines third of the lands of Catteynes.
        Somewhere between 1350 and 1420 is probably to be placed the tragedy of the death of Helen Gunn, the "Beauty of Braemore," the ill-fated bride of Alexander Gunn, who threw herself from the Tower of Ackergill, rather than accept marriage with the man who had torn her from her affianced husband.
        Marriages caused changes of ownership between the Sutherlands of Duffus, the Keiths and the Oliphants, one of whom William Oliphant married in 1479, Christian "heiress and successor of the deceased Sir Alxr. Sutherland, of Duffus, her great-grandfather."---(Reg. Mag. Sig., Lib. xxviii, No. 9. Reg. Sec. Sig., Vol. xv. ff. 39, 40, quoted in Orig. Par. Scot. ii. 2. 774). About this date, 1479, Christian possessed among other lands, "Aikirgyll, Reis, Harland" (ibid), and there is a deed recording the giving by her of a saisin at the Hill of Reiss.
        These notes do not profess to give all the changes of inheritance fully and exactly.
        In 1538 occurs the first recorded mention of the Tower itself. In that year James V. confirmed or gave to "William Earl Marischal and his wife, with remainder to heirs whomsoever, the half of certain lands......including the half of the half of the lands of Akergill, with the Tower and other pertinents......all resigned by Elizabeth Keith, the sister of Margaret" [The Marischal's wife.] (Reg. Mag. Sig. lib. xxvi. No. 146, quoted Orig. Par. Scot. (Wick) ii. 2, 773. In 1541, James V. granted in heritage to Alex. Innes......."two thirds of Thrumbister," and other lands, which belonged to margaret, Katherine and Helen, the daughters and heiresses of the deceased Andrew Oliphant of Berridale, heir and successor of the deceased Christina Sutherland, Lady Berridale" [see ante.]---Orig. Par. Scot., ii. 2, 774.
        In 1574, the Queen Regent granted remission to George, Earl of Caithness, for taking the Castle of Ackergill, belonging to William Earl Marischal. Alex. Keith was then "Captain of Ackergill"---Calder's Caithness, ch. v.
        From 1561-1566, John Keith was Captian of Ackergill. (Book of Assumptions, Orig. Par. Scot., ii., 2, 779.)
        In 1623, "Sir Robert Gordoun marched with his armie to the strong castell of Acrigill, which in lyk maner (vpon the first summonds) wes rendered to His Mties. use and the keyes delivered to Sir Robert."---Gordon's Hist. Earls of Sutherland, Ed. 1813, p. 379.
        In 1644 George Earl of Caithness was served heir in "the half of the lands of Ackergill" and others.
        Calder's Caithness, ch. x., states that Cromwell's troops garrisoned the Tower of Ackergill in 1651.
        In 1668 there was a contract ("of vendition"?) between George, Earl of Caithness, and William Dunbar of Hempriggs, and between 1675 and 1691 the latter acquired Ackergill from John, Lord Glenorchy, who had bought all his lands from George, Earl of Caithness, in 1675, and among them the half of Ackergill.
        In 1706 Sir James Sutherland, 2^nd son of James, Lord Duffus, descendant of Nicolas Sutherland and Marjorie Cheyne, married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir William Dunbar of Hempriggs.
        Macfarlane's Geographical Collections (quoted Orig. Par. Scot., ii., pp. 778-9) note that in 1726 the Tower was yet in good repair, and that betwixt that "and the sea is a good new house, lately built." It is this house, a small part of which can be seen to the right of the Tower in the old print of Ackergill by Daniell, 1821.
        In 1762 Bishop Forbes's Diary (edited by the Rev. J. B. Craven, D. D., Kirkwall), under 12^th August, 1762, notes that "The wall of Ackergill Castle is at least ten feet thick. You enter into a Grand Vault equal with the ground in its floor, now a kitchen, where formerly there has been a large draw-well, now filled [i.e., covered] up, but the circumvallation at the top is still entire. Above this is a lofty hall, 32 feet by 18 feet and 26 feet high, of an arched roof, in which Sir William Dunbar has cut some large windows, and is doing it up in a very pretty and elegant manner. There are 32 steps of a turnpike before you get on top of this Hall, where rooms go off at right and left. I went up to the top of the castle and walked round the roof, there being a balcony or little turret on each corner.........Of old it had a fossee on the land side."
        The water of the draw-well, about 25ft. deep, was used for washing purposes up to 1850-2, but after the drowning therein of a black man-servant, it was not used for drinking until the workmen, employed in building the addition to the Tower, drank it, rather than go to the Shore well for water during the great drought of that summer. The water is cold, clear and sweet. The windows put in by Sir William Dunbar, are now the laundry windows at Ackergill. One of the old arrow-slit windows, with the old glazing, still remains in place. When in 1850 Sir George Sutherland Dunbar pulled down the addition to the Tower mentioned by Macfarlane, and built the present addition, the corkscrew stair was removed as far up as the first floor. The doo-cots now standing, were erected in the 18^th century.
        Calder says that "the Tower...........is of rectangular form, about 82 feet in height [to the top of the battlements] and in breath at each of the angles, 45 feet. It consists of four storeys, two of which are arched, and the massive walls are from ten to eleven feet in thickness."---(ch. v.). L.D.D.

Endnotes

17. "Faire! faire ort! a mhic a' dùd! c'ait am bheil thu a nis?" This contains one of those idiomatic phrases of one language which cannot be literally translated into another; but it may be rendered thus:---"Shame! Shame upon thee! bragging son of a beggar! where art thou now?" Back
18. Memorabilia Domestica, 43-47. Mr. Sage's father, the Rev. Alexander Sage, afterwards minister of Kildonan, was employed for several years as assistant to Mr. Pope. Back
19. The letter is given in full in Archæologia, v. 216. The letter is in main a description of the famous Dun of Dornadilla in Sutherland. Back
20. List of Books and Pamphlets relating to Caithness, by John Mowat, in Horne's County of Caithness, p. 217. Back

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