Hyacinthus oblongo flore, cæruleus major C. B. '. Nymphæa alba major vulg. C. B. 5. Orchis, flore nudi hominis effigiem repræsentans, an mas C. B.. Parietaria vulgaris, sive officinarum et Dioscoridis C. B. Paronichia rutaceo folio Ger. Sedum foliis laciniatis. 6. seu Tridactylites tectorum C. B.7. Ros solis, folio rotundo C. B. 8. Rubia minima, saxatilis. Solanum bacciferum. 1. sive officinarum 2. Solanum bacciferum. 4. sive melanocerasus C. B. 10. Solanum I Hyacinthus non scriptus, Hare Bells, Common Blue Bell of the fields and woods. In May 1802, the Society for the encouragement of Arts, &c. gave a silver medal to Mr. Willis, an ingenious chemist of London, for a preparation of a gummy matter from the root of this plant. He discovered, that the dried bulbs yielded a substance possessing many of the properties of Gum-arabic, and answering, in various branches of manufacture, the same purposes, in equal quantity. The high price at which gum-arabic is now sold, renders this preparation an object of essential consequence, as the article is easily prepared, and the plant abounds in the woods and dens of most parts of the kingdom. 2 Imperatoria Ostruthium, Masterwort. 3 Convallaria Majalis, Lilly of the Valley, May Lilly. 4 Marrubium vulgare, White Horehound. 5 Nymphæa alba, White Water Lilly. The Highlanders make a dye of the root, of a dark chesnut colour. Opbrys Anthropomorphus. 7 Saxifraga Tridactylides, Rue-leaved Saxifrage. 8 Drosera rotundifolia, Round-leaved Sun Dew. Solanum nigrum, Common Nightshade. 1 Atropa Belladonna, Deadly Nightshade, Y Solanum bacciferum 12. id est scandens sive Dulcamara C. B.. Sophia chirurgorum, Nasturtium silvestre. 2. sive tenuissime divisum C. B.. Tormentilla officinarum. Trichomanes sive Polytrichum officinarum C. B. 3. Xyris. 1. sive Gladiolus fœtidus C. B. 7. There are several mineral waters in this shire; the most famous is the Spaw at Kinghorn, near to Pretty-Curr: of the vertues of which Doctor William Barclay and Doctor Anderson have written treatises, which are printed. Near to the manor of Balgrigie, there is at the foot of the hill a mineral water, which hath been frequented sometimes by country people; when it is poured in a vessel, there doth appear a flowring or rising of small whitish particles, which makes some conjecture, it may be impregnated with aluminous steams; it is observed to purge by vomit and stool. At Dysert there is a vitriolic water, which of late is made use of. At Kinkell, in the East Nuick, there is a mineral water, which is said to participate of the ores of iron and their quality. 1 Solanum Dulcamara, Woody Nightshade, Bittersweet. 2 Sisymbrium Sophia, Flixweed. 3 Asplenium trichomanoides, Maiden Hair. 4 Oxalis acetosella, Wood Sorrel. 5 Verbascum Thapsus. 7 Moræa fetidissima. At Viola grandiflora, Great Yellow Violet. The editor is indebted to a learned friend for the Linnean, and many of the English names of the plants in this and the preceding chapter. The short notices of the uses of some of them, have been chiefly extracted from Lightfoot's Flora Scotica. At Orrok, there is a water tasting somewhat of vitriol, which is solutive. There will an account be given of the fresh-water fishes, and of the water-fowls, which frequent the lochs, in their proper places. And in the particular description of the shire, there will be an account given of what, relating to the natural history, is most remarkable in them. CHAP. V. Concerning the State of the Christian Religion in this Shire. SECT. I.-CONCERNING THE CULDEES, WHO FIRST PLANTED THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION HERE. THIS HIS chapter, containing the state of the Christian religion in this shire, must be divided in several sections: the first is concerning the Culdees. It is probable, that some particular persons amongst the Picts may have been converted to the Christian religion, by the Scots, who very soon embraced it: but the æra of the conversion of the Picts in this shire, is by our historians deduced from the arrival, in the East Nuick of this shire, of St. Regulus, (whom they call St. Rule) and his companions, with the reliques of St. Andrew. They differ somewhat about the time when this happened: our great historian Archbishop Spottiswood condescendeth on the year of Christ 370, when Hergustus was king of the Picts; and others agree, that it was when Hergustus was king. Mr. Maule, in his MS. history, makes Regulus to have arrived here anno 363, in the reign Y 2 of of our king Fethelmachus. The extracts I have out of the great register-book of the priory of St. Andrews, make Constantius to have wasted the city of Patras, where the reliques of St. Andrew were kept; and to have carried them away anno 345; and that the third night before the Emperour came there, St. Rule was warned by a vision, to take some of the reliques to bring them hither, and it was some years thereafter before he arrived here. Fordun, lib. 2. cap. 46, 47 and 48, has the history of this, and says it was some years after the first vision, before Regulus left Patras; and that he had a second vision, commanding him to bring them hither: upon which he took voyage by sea, with his companions, and near two years thereafter suffered shipwrack at Muckross, upon this coast, when Hurgust the son of Forgius, whom he calls (in the catalogue of the Pictish kings) Forgso, reigned here; and he says, that king "Hungus, suum inibi palatium juxta basilicam ædificans, beato Regulo suisque fratribus terras quasdam pro seminandis frugibus in eleemosinam perpetuam excolendas concessit." Fordun calleth Regulus an Abbot: the excerpts of the old register of St. Andrew calleth him a Bishop, and his companions his clerks; and showeth, that afterwards they travelled through the country, and built several churches, (which in those times were built of wood, with which this country abounded) the MS. mentioneth three, one at Fortevioth, a town then, one at Monechata, which was afterwards called Monichi, and beyond the Moneth one at Doldanha, called afterwards Chondrohedalion. It is not known where these towns stood, the buildings 1 "Hungus, building his palace in the same place near the church, granted as a perpetual almsgift to St. Regulus and his companions, certain lands, to be cultivated for raising corn." 2 The village of Forteviot is well known. Monichi, Sibbald elsewhere supposes to be Moonzie, and Chondrohedalion he says is Nachton, see page 36. buildings being then of wood, perished, and there is no vestige left of 'em. Sanazar. Et querimur genus infelix humana labare Membra ævo, cum regna palam moriantur et urbes. Regulus made his abode in the East Nuick of this shire, and is reported to have lived there 32 years after his arrival, serving God devoutly in cells, and gave the rise to the Culdees, who lived there for many ages thereafter. Boethius' Hist. lib. 6. says, that Hurgust "Struxit et haud procul a palatio sacram ædem divo apostolo dicatam. Ferunt eam esse quam hodie omnibus venerabilem cernimus, in medio agro canonicorum sepulturæ sacro, monumentis prisco more celebribus (ut est videre) sine tamen nominibus refertam. Hanc prior ætas Kilreul, hoc est templum Reguli aut Regulo potius suadente structum, recentior vero vetus Andreæ templum, appellitat '." After Hurgust, their greatest benefactor was King Hungus; the extracts 66 out Hurgust built near his palace a church dedicated to St. Andrew. It is reported to be the same that is still standing in the common burial ground of the Abbey, in which there are many ancient but nameless tombstones. This church was formerly called Kilreul, i. e. the Church of St. Regulus, or rather the church built by the persuasion of St. Regulus. It is now called the Old Church of St. Andrew." The tower and walls of this chapel of St. Regulus or Rule, as the name is commonly used, still remain. The tower is square, of about 108 feet in height, without any spire. The wall consists of exterior coatings of hewn stone, the space between which is filled up with small stones and lime, now so hardened, as to be more difficult to cut than the stones themselves. The arches of the doors and windows arc semicircular. This beautiful specimen of ancient architecture has lately been repaired at the expence of the Exchequer, and a winding stair built from the bottom to the top, which is covered with lead, within a parapet of 4 feet in height. This chapel indeed can have no pretensions to the antiquity ascribed to it by Boeth.; but the chaste and simple style of its architecture, shews it to have been built before the introduction of the Gothic mode, and it may have probably been reared soon after the foundation of the city of St. Andrews, in the 9th century. |