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while, instead of the conservatory and third tower, a three storied wing forms the connecting link with the lower range of offices. The east front, also of an ornamental character, is considerably inferior in height to the rest of the building; it is mostly devoted to stables and offices, and forms one side of an open court, which occupies the central portion of the great square. The roofs are covered with Westmoreland slates of a greenish tone, and along their ridges run iron railings of rich tracery. The four fronts of the house are entirely built in dressed square ruble-work, and of a pale pink brown freestone quarried on the estate.

Entering from the north, the visitor after passing through a small outer hall, finds himself in a low gallery about 80 feet in length fitted with oak and adorned with the spoils of the chase. Towards the end of the gallery he ascends by a ballustraded staircase to the first floor, and arrives at a corridor 95 feet long, and 18 high, which, like the gallery beneath, is painted of a dulled vermilion, a shade brighter than the wellknown Pompeian hue. Opening on this corridor, is the principal suit of rooms: the dining-room 36 feet by 26; the drawing-rooms 24 and 30 feet by 24, pannelled in white, blue, and gold,—all these 18 feet high; and the library, fitted in oak, 44 by 25, and 30 in height. In the dining-room hang most of the family portraits. In the drawing-rooms and other parts of the house, are some valuable pictures, chiefly Italian and Dutch, and in the library, the corridor, and Lord Southesk's sitting-room, is a collection of 8000 volumes, many of which are rare and of great value.

The remainder of the west rooms on this floor, and all those to the north, are occupied by the family apartments, and the nurseries, but at the end of the corridor facing the south, is a bed-room which formed part of the old house, and which was certainly slept in by the Chevalier in 1715, and probably by King James VI. and the two Kings Charles, on the occasion of their recorded visits to Kinnaird.

The second floor consists entirely of bed-rooms; the ground

floor comprises offices and cellars, the hall and gallery already mentioned, a large billiard-room in the centre of the west front, taking the place of the former entrance hall, also a smoking-room looking southwards, near which a door opening on the terrace cuts through part of the wall of the oldest house, and displays its remarkable thickness.

Kinnaird Castle is situated some fifty feet above the adjacent valley, at the extreme end of a gravel plateau of considerable size, whose steep banks have evidently formed part of the coast line in times of remote antiquity. Before the woods which now conceal the shape of the country were called into being, the appearance of the old fort must have well justified its name-Ceann-airde-the head of the height, (or the higher head, the headland) an appellation which it shares with several similarly situated places in other parts of Scotland.

Let us now ascend to the platform of the central tower and gaze with delight on the wide and varied expanse of land and sea which on either hand meets our admiring view. To the south, indeed, the eye is stopped by the unbroken slopes of Carcary and Bonnyton range, one extremity of which is lost in the sea beyond the tower of Craig, while the other terminates in the wooded hill of Bolshan.

On the north, however, the Grampian mountains form a more distant and nobler back-ground, and towards the front of the intervening undulations, you observe the City of Brechin comes into sight. A screen of trees between, however, completely hides from the view the hoary spires of the cathedral, and mysterious round tower, which would have added so much historical and general interest to the beautiful landscape. Stretching westwards, you descry the immense woods of Monrommon Moor, once a barren, heath-covered plain. Its flat and monotonous outline, you observe, is picturesquely broken in the distance by the rocky heights of Turin, and the more rounded eminences of Guthrie, Dunnichen, and Lour.

To the east from the foot of the Castle bank, extends a rich and level vale, along which, on the northern side, the

river South Esk finds its way to the tidal lake commonly called the Basin; and bounding this estuary on the long promontory which shuts out the German Ocean, stands the ancient City of Montrose, with its lofty well-proportioned steeple rising clear against the open sky. And far away on ocean's hazy verge your eye rests in dreamy repose on the calm, unruffled surface of the great Northern Sea, tracing as you gaze, the indistinct outlines of many a gallant ship, as with white expanded sails, they gradually disappear below the mystical line of the distant horizon.

Immediately before the west and principal front of the Castle, lies the deer park stretching in one level sweep to woods which combine with those of Monrommon Moor. At this part the deer park is a mile across, but it does not maintain an equal width in its whole north and south length of more than two miles. Within its area are contained 800 acres, comprising every variety of soil, from the warm gravel of the principal plateau on which the castle stands, to the cold clay of Tilly-soil and the whinny moors of the higher ground near the North Lodge.

Large woods of varying age and growth, and many young plantations shelter herds of red and fallow deer, in number generally limited to from 50 to 70 for the former, and from 400 to 500 for the latter, which, it may be noticed, are the direct descendants of those mentioned by Ochterlony in his account of the Castle already quoted.

The armorial bearing of the Carnegies of Southesk is an eagle with expanded wings, azure, armed, beaked, and membered.

The Carnegies of Southesk are not only famous as the inheritors of a very ancient name, but are equally distinguished by their brilliant talents and literary acquirements. Sir Robert Carnegie adopted, from choice, the law as a profession, and prosecuted it successfully while the Earl of Arran was Regent of Scotland, during the minority of Queen Mary. He displayed abilities and a capacity for the trans

action of public business so eminent, that the regent was induced not only to promote him in his profession, but also to employ him in various important embassies to France and England. Arran, indeed, consulted Sir Robert and relied on his advice and assistance, during a great part of his regency. He made him a senator of the College of Justice on the 4th July 1547. He was about the same time made one of the Privy Councillors of the Regent.

Sir Robert was afterwards employed on several important missions. In 1548 the regent sent the laird of Kinnaird as his special ambassador to England to treat for the ransom of George, Earl of Huntly, Chancellor of Scotland, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Pinkie in the previous year, in which mission he was eminently successful. He was also employed as one of the Commissioners on the part of Scotland for arranging the treaty of peace with England, which was concluded at Norham-on-Tweed, on 10th June 1551; and on his passing through England to France, the regent wrote to Edward VI. for letters of confirmation of the treaty under the Great Seal, stating that Sir Robert Carnegie was fully instructed in the views of the regent, and asking Edward to give him the same credit as he would have done to the regent himself.

Sir Robert Carnegie retained the confidence of the Duke of Chatelherault as long as he held the office of regent; and there is reason to believe that he retained it to the last. It was about this time he received the honour of Knighthood, very probably on the assumption of power by the new regent, with whom he was so soon in high favour. Sir Robert who had enjoyed the confidence of the regent and of his successor, Mary of Guise, enjoyed in like manner the confidence of Queen Mary when she took the reins of power into her own hands. He had the care of the Great Seal while the Earl of Huntly, then Chancellor, was abroad; and was also CollectorGeneral of the Temporal Taxation during the regency of Mary, Queen Dowager. Notwithstanding the numerous

important offices he held, he found leisure to write a work on the law of Scotland, which is quoted by Sir James Balfour in his Practicks of the Ancient Law of Scotland. Sir Robert married, in the year 1527, Margaret, daughter of Guthrie of Lunan. Of this marriage there were eight sons

and eight daughters.

Mr David Carnegie of Colluthie and Kinnaird, who was also bred to the law, took a prominent part in the civil business of Scotland, and was appointed on many commissions by King James VI. The public services of David Carnegie are specially referred to on the occasion of his eldest son's elevation to the peerage, first as Lord Carnegie, and afterwards as Earl of Southesk.

David, first earl of Southesk, inherited the talents of his father, and grandfather for public business, and like them passed a long and active life in the service of his country. Lord Carnegie was soon after appointed an Extraordinary Lord of Session and took his seat on the bench on the 5th of July 1616. He continued to occupy the place of an Extraordinary Lord of Session till the death of King James VI. in 1625. He was also admitted a Privy Councillor in the month of February 1617.

When King James left Scotland to assume the English crown, he promised to revisit his native kingdom once in every three years; but he did not return to Scotland till the year 1617, when he declared that he felt “ a salmon-like instinct" to revisit his native kingdom. Amongst the houses which were honoured by his presence was Kinnaird, the residence of Lord Carnegie in Angus.

Like his father, James, second Earl of Southesk, took an active part in the civil and religious controversies, which then occupied the attention of the country. He was chosen Commissioner by the Presbytery of Brechin to the famous Glasgow Assembly of 1638; and in the following year was more active in assisting his brother-in-law, Montrose, and his covenanting friends.

He became a commander in Montrose's

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