entailed the estate, having ten sons and three daughters. The lawyer who drew the deed, said, in joke, “After the ten sons and descendants you might put me in." This was done, and strange to say, the lawyer's family ultimately got possession-all the sons of the real laird and descendants having died out. The Beresfords of Ireland made a move as next male-heirs to dispute the family succession of the lawyer, but the deed was so clear that they did not push their claim.

Colonel Fullarton, of the Skeldane family, another officer of high repute in the Indian Army, and who took a leading part in the overthrow of Tippo Saib, was some years subsequently taken prisoner in India by a chief of high caste and great wealth. All overtures and money bribes for the release of the colonel proved unavailing, but in time his liberty came about in a romantic and remarkable way. Colonel Fullarton, who was a man of splendid appearance and perfect manners, and knowing the native language fluently, became quite a favourite with his captor, so one day this chief took a very beautiful daughter to see his prisoner; both then parted feeling a mutual and instinctive admiration for each other, and ere many days passed the "princess" found her way back to the prisoner's quarters. In time their attachment for each other became great, and culminated in a marriage by the rites of her creed; this secured the colonel's liberty, when he was soon afterwards married by the rites of his Church. The lady received a handsome dowry, and both set out for England and Scotland. On arrival at Leith they were met by his relatives and friends, and the handsome couple were carried in state befitting her rank to Edinburgh, where, after a short stay, they proceeded to his property in Ayrshire, where both lived long, happily, and popularly. From this family of Skeldane were also descended the Fullartons of Burnside, Largs, Overtoun, and Kerrelaw, Ayrshire. This last property is now possessed by the sister of Mr. Gavin Fullarton, Helensburgh, in life-rent and in fee to her son, who is heir to the baronetcy now held by Sir Henry Kingston James. The original Fullartons were of French origin-(see Scott's "Lord of the Isles" and Notes); and, besides their once vast estates in Ayrshire, held lands

in Arran from the days of the Bruce. To that branch Bruce was much attached. The Arran estates were entailed by the father of Dr. Fullarton of Ayr, cousin of Skeldane, whose son, John, a dashing naval officer, long resided in Campbeltown, having built the house of "Rosemount," near the residence of his brother-in-law, Captain Beatson. Colonel James, the second son, a Knight of Hanover and Companion of the Bath, married Miss M'Laverty of Keil, Campbeltown, but died without issue. Major Archibald, who lost his leg at Salamanca, in the Peninsula, succeeded when quite an old veteran to the Arran estates, and the male-heirs of his family predeceasing him, the property passed to his daughter (Mrs. Bowden Fullarton, of Glasgow), by his marriage with Miss Peebles of an old Glasgow family.

Mrs. Bowden Fullarton, dying in 1875, was succeeded by her half sister, Miss Jessie Spottiswoode Fullarton, now heiress of Kilmichael, Brodick, and Whitefarland, Loch Ranza. It was Colonel James Fullarton, already referred to, who first placed his cousin (by the female side), the present Lord Napier of Magdala, in the British Army-a mark of gratitude the gallant field-marshal has in many ways recognised to the family. Margaret, daughter of Dr. Lewis Fullarton, of Kilmichael, who died about 1859, was well known and esteemed in Ayr. Another daughter, Isabella, was the widow of Dr. John Mackinnon, D.D., of Tyree, early in this century and for many years tutor to the Argyle family. Their son, Campbell, Inspector General of Hospitals, who took a conspicuous part at the siege of Delhi, for which he received the decoration of the Bath, married Miss Beatson, Campbeltown, and by her left an only son. Another son, the Honourable Lewis Mackinnon, of the Legislative Assembly, died at Jamaica in 1882.

John Fullarton, second son of William of the Carstairs branch, passed advocate 17th Feb., 1798, when in his 23rd year, and on 17th Feb., 1829, was elevated to the bench in the room of Lord Eldin, when he took the judicial title of Lord Fullerton. He died 3rd Dec., 1853, about three weeks after resigning his seat on the bench.

INVERKIP TO WEST KILBRIDE.

WITH a fairly straight road running north to south, of little, if anything, over twenty miles in length, there is nothing, of course, to prevent a pedestrian in ordinary "form" from accomplishing in one day the entire distance between "Auld Kirk" on the Kip and the more southerly parish, named, like its church, after the pious St. Bridget. But if he desires, as most intelligent travellers do, to linger over the supreme beauties of the locality through which he is travelling, and to make himself acquainted at the same time with even a few of those historic remains associated with stirring scenes in Scottish history, he must deviate so frequently from the main path as to make a break, for one night at least, all but necessary. This our friend, who may be presumed as tramping along the shore road, knapsack on back, will be found, can most conveniently be done by resting about the centre of the parish lying between Inverkip and Kilbride, or say in the pleasant watering-place of Largs itself. Here he may profitably spend an odd hour or two of a long summer day by examining localities easily identified with that famous battle through which, over six hundred years since, the victorious Alexander III. freed Scotland once and for ever from the tyranny of Northern Sea Kings or Vikings, not unworthily represented by Haco and his plundering Norsemen from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Even otherwise, a day's leisure would not be misspent among the richly-wooded glens which open up every here and there eastward, or by the side of one or other of the many sparkling yet secluded streams which find their way through the valleys, rushing and leaping with joy till lost in the waters of the opening Firth. Beautiful as Clyde is admitted to be at all points of its journey-some 106 miles-to the sea; beautiful when it begins to show itself in the upland pastoral solitudes of Crawford, when it is winding round the base of Tinto, or overshadowed by the dark chasm of Cartland, or leaping over huge Falls like Cora Linn, or winding gently, yet with majesty, among the orchards

and broad meadows and fair woodlands of Lanarkshire-none of these features in the route of our noble river surpasses in beauty what borders its banks as the river gets lost in the Firth, and the Firth in the sea. Here the attractions are at once varied, interesting, and informing. Leaving behind us the princely splendours of Ardgowan, as already faintly described in these pages (see 119); and even without troubling ourselves for a moment with the reflection that Inverkip, as a parish, stretched as far eastward in pre-Reformation times as Greenock, where the Church of St. Lawrence stood, there is within little more than a mile north-east from the parish church the ruins of that old Castle of Dunrod, famous in the annals of Renfrewshire as the resort of both wizards and witches, and not very far off-indeed, not quite so far away-an old arch crossing the Kip burn known as the Roman Bridge, and which, in name at least, may have been an antiquity when the battle of Largs was fought.

About a mile south from Inverkip village, the traveller enters the north or Wemyss portion of Kelly or Bannatyne property, held by that family, it is thought, for over 300 years. In 1792 the old Kelly property was purchased by John Wallace, of Cessnock, Ayrshire, one of the leading Glasgow West India merchants. He built the larger and older part of the present Kelly mansion within the next year or two, and here he died, 4th June, 1805, when the property passed to his son, Robert Wallace, of Postal Reform fame, to be afterwards referred to. By various contracts of excambion the original Wallace purchase was extended southward beyond Kelly burn to Auchindarroch, and northward to Wemyss Bay, the port of Ardgowan, in exchange for the lands of Finnock conveyed to the then Sir Michael Shaw Stewart. Shortly after entering Parliament, as first member for Greenock, under the Reform Bill of 1832, Robert Wallace was obliged to part with that Kelly estate which he had done. so much to extend and adorn. The purchaser in the first instance was a Mr. Alexander, an Australian merchant, but he was able to retain the property only a few years, when Kelly fell into the hands of Mr. James Scott, of Dalmonach Print-works, and the Wemyss portion passed to Charles Wilsone Brown, Glasgow.

In 1860, the Wemyss portion of Kelly was sold for Mr. Brown in two portions, Wemyss Bay falling to the now venerable (1885) George Burns, Esq., one of the founders of the great Cunard Steamship Company, who built Wemyss House on the property from designs by Mr. Salmon, Glasgow, and erected also the beautiful Episcopal Church near by, in memory of Mrs. Burns. Wemyss Castle property passed to his son, Mr. John Burns, presently (1885) Chairman and Managing Director of the Cunard Steamship Company (Limited)-a company which in its early days he did more to develop and consolidate than any other single person. To Wemyss Castle, as built for Wilsone Brown from designs by Billings, Mr. John Burns has made important additions, and otherwise rendered the surrounding grounds a feature of attraction, even to travellers who only see them at a distance from a Clyde steamer. In 1867, the estate of Kelly proper was purchased from Mr. Scott by James Young, Esq., of Durris, F.R.S. and LL.D., a chemist of such high repute that he may almost be said to have created the shale oil trade in this country as well as in America. Rising from but a humble position as an apprentice cabinetmaker to his father in Glasgow, Dr. Young first availed himself of what little leisure he had in taking lessons at the Andersonian Institution, where, by assiduity and intelligence, he attracted the attention of Professor Graham, who first made his young pupil assistant in Glasgow, and then took him to London, when the Mastership of the Mint opened up to the older accomplished chemist. After that came a few years' service, first in the laboratories of Messrs. Muspratt, St. Helens, Liverpool, and next of Messrs. Charles Tennent & Co., in Manchester. It was while discharging duty at this latter place that Dr. Young's attention was drawn by Sir Lyon Playfair to the subject of oil of high quality flowing from a pit at Alfreton, near Manchester. The discovery of the Torbanehill mineral was not long in bringing Young's careful researches to a practical issue. The works were established at Addiewell and Bathgate, which prospered so greatly that in 1866, when his patent expired, they were sold to a Limited Company for £400,000. When these works were undertaken the yearly produce of oil