Out of the very bosom of the mountains of Albany issues the Tay, the greatest river in all Scotland, and rolls along through the fields, till widening itself into a lake full of islands, it there restrains its course. After this, kept within banks, it waters Perth, a large, plentiful, and rich country, and receives the Almond, a little river coming out of Atholl.

            This Atholl (to make a little digression,) is infamous for witches, but a country fruitful enough, having woody valleys, where once the Caledonian forest (dreadful for its dark intricate windings, for its dens of bears, and its huge wild thick-maned bulls,) extended itself in former ages, far and near in these parts. As for the places herein, they are of little account; but the Earls are very memorable. Thomas, a younger son of Roland of Galloway, was, in his wife's right, Earl of Atholl; whose son Patrick was murdered at Haddington by the Bissets, his rivals; and they immediately set the house on fire, that it might be supposed he perished casually in the flames. In the earldom succeeded David Hastings, who had married Patrick's aunt by the mother's side: whose son that David (surnamed of Strathbogie) may seem to have been; who a little after, in the reign of Hen. 3 of England, was Earl of Atholl, married one of the daughters and heirs of Richard, base son to King John of England, and had a very noble estate with her in England. She bore him two sons. John Earl of Atholl, who being very unsettled in his allegiance, was hanged on a gallows fifty foot high; and David Earl of Atholl, who by a marriage with one of the daughters and heirs of John Comyn of Badenoch by one of the heirs of Aumar de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, got a mighty estate. He had a son David, who under King Edw 2 was sometimes summoned to parliament amongst the English earls; and being made, under King Edward Balliol, Lieutenant-General of Scotland, was conquered by the valour of Andrew Murray, and slain in a battle in Culblean Forest, in the year 1335. His son David had only two young daughters, Elizabeth, married to Tho. Percy, from whom the Barons de Burgh fetch their original; and Philippa, married to Sir Tho. Halsham, an English knight. Then fell the title of Atholl to that Walter Stewart, son to King Robert 2, who barbarously murdered James 1, King of Scotland, and was agreeably punished for that execrable piece of cruelty: insomuch that Aeneas Sylvius, then Pope Eugenius the 4th's Nuncio in Scotland, is reported to have said, that he could not tell whether he should give them greater commendations that revenged the King's death, or punish them with a sharper censure of condemnation, that polluted themselves with so heinous a parricide. After an interval of some few years, this honour was granted to John Stewart of the house of Lorne, son of James, surnamed the Black Knight, by Joan, the widow of King James 1, daughter of John Earl of Somerset, and niece to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; whose posterity enjoy it at this day.

            Now the Tay, by the influx of the Almond, being enlarged, makes for Dunkeld, adorned by King David with an episcopal see. This, upon account of the signification, is looked upon by most as a town of the Caledonians; and they interpret it, the Hill of Hazels, who will have it take the name from the hazels of the Caledonian forest. From hence the Tay takes its course by the ruins of Berth, a little desolate city; not forgetting what calamity it brought upon it in times past, when with an impetuous torrent it overflowed the pasture and corn grounds, destroyed all the labours of the husbandman, and hurried headlong with this poor city, a royal infant, and all the inhabitants. Instead whereof King William built Perth, much better situated; which presently grew so rich, that Necham, who lived in that age, made this distich upon it;

Transis, ample Tai, per rura, per oppida, per Perth,
Regnum sustentant istius urbis opes.
Great Tay through Perth, through towns, through country flies:
Perth the whole kingdom with her wealth supplies.

but posterity hath named it, from a church founded in honour of St. John, St. John's town. And the English, in the heat of the war between the Bruces and the Balliols, fortified it with great bulwarks, which the Scots afterwards mostly demolished. It is nevertheless a neat little city, pleasantly seated between two greens; and although some of the churches are defaced, yet wants it not its beauties: so divided too, that almost every street is inhabited by a several trade apart, and is furnished by the Tay every tide with commodities from sea, in their light vessels. Upon it, J. Johnston, so often mentioned:

PERTHUM.

Propter aquas Tai liquidas, & amoena vireta,
Obtinet in medio regna superba solo.
Nobilium quondam regum clarissima sedes,
Pulchra situ, & pinguis germine dives agri.
Finitimis dat jura locis, moremque modumque
Huic dare, laus illis haec meruisse dari.
Sola inter patrias incincta est moenibus urbes,
Hostibus assiduis ne vaga praeda foret.
Quanta virum virtus, dextrae quae praemia norunt
Cimber, Saxo ferox, & genus Hectoridum.
Felix laude nova, felix quoque laude vetusta,
Perge recens, priscum perpetuare decus.
Near Tay's great stream, amongst delightful plains,
Majestic Perth in royal splendour reigns.
For lofty courts of ancient kings renowned;
Fair is the site, and ever rich the ground.
Hence laws and manners neighb'ring parts receive,
Their praise 'tis to deserve, and hers to give.
No walls like her, her sister towns can show,
Which guard her riches from the bord'ring foe.
How stout her knights, what noble spoils they won,
The Britons, Saxons, and the Danes have known.
Renowned in eldest and in latest days;
Oh! May her glories with her years increase,
And new deserts advance her ancient praise.

            And now lately King James 6 hath advanced Perth to an earldom, upon his creating James Baron Drummond Earl of Perth.

            Near Perth is Methven, which Margaret of England, dowager to King James 4, purchased with ready money for her third husband Henry Stewart, of the blood royal, and his heirs; and withal obtained of her son James 5 the dignity of a Baron for him. A little lower is Ruthven, a castle of the Ruthvens, a name to be accursed and razed out of all memorials, since the states of the kingdom passed a decree, that all of that name should lay it down, and take a new one; after that the Ruthvens, brothers, in an execrable and horrid conspiracy, had plotted the murder of the best of princes, James 6, who had created their father William, Earl of Gowrie; but afterwards (upon his going insolently to prescribe laws to his sovereign, and being convicted of high treason) beheaded him. But I may seem to have said too much of persons condemned to eternal oblivion: and yet the mentioning such wicked generations, may be of use to caution posterity.

            As for Gowrie, so much celebrated for its corn-fields, and the excellency of its soil, it lies along the other side of the Tay, being a more level country. In this tract, over against Perth, on the further side of Tay, stands Scone, a famous monastery in times past, and honoured with the coronation of the kings of Scotland; ever since King Kenneth, having hard by made a general slaughter of the Picts, placed a stone here, enclosed in a wooden chair, for the inauguration of the Kings of Scotland. It had been transported out of Ireland into Argyll; and King Edw. 1 of England caused it to be conveyed to Westminster. Concerning which, I have inserted this prophecy, so common in every man's mouth; since it hath now proved true, as few of that sort do.

Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum
Inveniunt lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.
Or fate's deceived, and heaven decrees in vain,
Or where they find this stone the Scots shall reign.

            Now, by the special favour of King James, Scone gives the title of Baron to David Murray.

            Where the Tay, now grown larger, dilates itself, Arrol hangs over it, the seat of the noble Earls of Arrol. They have been hereditary High Constables of Scotland ever since the Bruce's times, and deduce their original (which is certainly very ancient) from one Hay, a man of prodigious strength and courage; who, together with his sons, in a dangerous battle against the Danes at Longcarty, catching up an ox-yoke, by fighting valiantly, and encouraging others, rallied the retreating Scots, so as they got the day. Which victory and deliverance, both the King and the states ascribed to his singular valour. Whereupon several excellent lands were assigned hereto him and his posterity, who in testimony of this action have set a yoke for their crest over their coat of arms . As for Huntly Castle, hard by, I have nothing to write of it, but that it has given name to a very great and honourable family: of which hereafter.

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