Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
Title: | Praefectvrarvm Aberdonensis Et Banfiensis ... Nova Descriptio, Auctore Roberto Gordonio |
Pagination: | 104-5 |
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Translation of text:
applied themselves to this life practise it for daily needs, not to make money from business; hence while foreigners (especially Belgians) as we look on daily make great profits from catching herring and other fish, they seem to convict of laziness those whose study this should be. Although these shores are free from sandbanks, rocks and shallows, and with a sandy bottom are suited to anchoring, nevertheless they are lacking in harbours and at few ports (which will be mentioned later) are approached by ships, especially larger ones. The rivers are amazingly productive in fish, mostly salmon; with them and other goods which the region produces some ships are filled each year, and bring back what is not available at home, or if the produce has been especially abundant, money is brought back. The zeal and energy expended on this fishing is commensurate to the sloth with which the riches of the ocean are neglected. If the nature of the inhabitants is considered, since I owe my birth to these parts, I must speak modestly, and in this respect as also elsewhere truth must be satisfied: however, not to say anything beyond the truth, those who have particular knowledge of these parts will admit that the inhabitants in gentler nature, trained judgement, and cultivation of mind and character excel all their neighbours, especially where this kingdom from here turns north and west. This is partly due to travels among foreigners, and to Aberdeen University, to which all who can gather from every side: from the mountain provinces to lay aside their native fierceness, others to take to a higher level the rudiments of piety and learning, and make themselves equal to public or private business in later life. If you look at the humbler sort and common people, they give themselves up to agriculture or the mechanical arts, which they practise scarcely successfully, yet some rise up. But some of better note or distinguished by birth, citizens too and townspeople, train in letters from their earliest years, and when grown up an education abroad is their pleasure, and trade is left for the city-dwellers. The better people (to their great loss) disdain that way of life as beneath their birth; the result for many is poverty, to alleviate which they equip themselves to bear arms; this they have done with praise for many years in many places among foreigners, especially Belgians, Germans and French, a race always friendly and beloved by them; for with their sharp and fiery nature they make considerable progress whether devoting themselves to the Muses or to Mars. Those whom age has cooled down take their ease at home, living in their country houses and estates; city life they place after the country, rarely visiting towns unless business calls them. Nor do city merchants and traders escape this reproach of inactivity: as many of these as can make their fortune and then spend the remainder of their life slothfully at home. Parsimony was considered among the virtues by our ancestors, today through foreign contacts other customs have been imbibed - drunkenness, gormandising, luxury, which have brought poverty to many but have not been given up. The rivers are abundant in fish of different kinds, yet variety yields to number, innumerable shoals of trout beyond others; of these six distinct species are found, all most savoury and pleasing to the taste, and since they frequent rocks they are not denied to the sick: for they live in only pure and limpid water; no stream does not abound in them. These rivers are to be discussed later; they nourish pearl-bearing shells, from which valuable gems are sometimes taken; these shells are found in muddy beds, and the art of fishing for them is left to the meaner sort, who being ignorant of the art often return empty-handed. There is no lack of various kinds of birds, whether they delight in the water or the mountains, hence there is frequent opportunity for hawking. There is hunting of game, for stags and hinds, but only in groves, woods and mountains; there are hares everywhere, and more than enough of foxes. Dangerous animals, hostile to the herds, are lacking; for wolves are now believed to have almost died out, or if there still are any, they are far away from gentler areas and human cultivation. There is one kind of snake, hidden on rocky mountains or in mossy heaths, so that there is little danger from them; the toad is rare, nor as far as I know is any other poisonous creature found. In different places veins of sandstone are to be had, and that of many types; when polished and cut into varied forms by a skilful hand, it supplies the want of marble and adds elegant grace to buildings. There is such a large supply of limestone that in some places it is applied to fertilise tired fields. There are various kind of mill-stones, and sufficient dug stones for tiles and ridges of houses. I cannot stop myself from describing a kind of pebble peculiar to these places, not hitherto recognised or mentioned by any writer; I am surprised that it escaped the diligence of our Boece, who spent the greatest part of his life and died here, given that he is often excessive in such matters. This pebble is neither precious nor lustrous, its material is a very hard and brittle flint. There is more than enough of it here; the pebbles recall a work of art, but such as no craftsman can achieve out of such brittle material. Two forms are found, one very like a hooked weapon ending in three distinct heads, of triangular shape; the other species clearly recalls the iron of a hunting spear. All are varied both in size and in colour, imitating the flint from which they come; the length comes to two inches or one or a half, the thickness to that of one or two grains of corn; rough all over, unpolished, they remain like fragments of iron implements which need to be smoothed: but all are sharp at the side. For this one feature these pebbles are remarkable, that they are found occasionally by chance in fields or on public and busy roads, but are never discovered by searching: today perhaps you will find one where yesterday there was none, or in the afternoon where all was empty in the morning, and this mostly with a clear sky in summertime. An upright and trustworthy man reported to me that one was found by him when travelling by horse at the top of his legging, and I know that the same happened to a woman on horseback, who took one from the fold of her dress. They are commonly called in the vernacular elf arrow-heads, which means in Latin iron tips of arrows, which witches fire; for fauns, witches and that kind of spirits are named Elves; stories are told of them and their use of these for arrows, and are believed by many, which it would be foolish to commit to paper. I have had drawings of their shape and size added. [Scan drawing.] But this is more than enough on them.
There still remain traces of paganism, not in men's minds, but in places dedicated to cult: enclosures of huge stones may be seen, arranged in a circle; one inside the circle conspicuous over the rest by its width, facing south, seems to have provided the place for an altar; these stones have often been brought from a distance in a difficult journey. There are on some hills, also on the tops of mountains, immense mounds of smaller stones, given over to the burial of chiefs before the Christian period; for when they are pulled apart and dug up, bones are discovered, and for some the honour of a name still remains. There are also in various places stones or rocks set up, notable for their height and size; some of these are inscribed with figures but no letters, and are believed to be monuments of victories or defeats whose memory has faded. Frequent and well-attended markets are held all over these regions from the beginning of the year until the winter days (here quite short) stop them. There is almost no parish church which does not hold its own, and often more than one, which need not be listed. Now as I hasten to the location of the individual districts, I am delayed, because in describing them I not infrequently mention Lords of Parliament, and as this term is still novel, I must state what it means for me. The degrees of dignities and honours which are in use today but were unknown in Roman times, have driven me to this. So here they are. The most ancient and noble dignity among us (even after Christianity had been adopted) was held by the name of Ab-thanes and Thanes; this dignity vanished many centuries ago, yet the word and name remain with many estates reflecting it. When about A.D. 1056 the tyrant Macbeth was expelled from rule over the kingdom, Malcolm nicknamed Canmore was the first to bring in the name and dignity of earls from neighbouring England, and then the supreme Senate of the kingdom was divided into different orders, over all of which the King presided. This Senate, if he opposed, had no right to act on affairs, but if he agreed laws were passed or abrogated. Until recent times this Senate consisted of these orders: Dukes if there were any (quite often there were none), Marquesses, earls, viscounts, and lords, whom I call 'of Parliament' (for the name of this assembly is Parliament), made up one order: of these Marquesses and viscounts are quite recent among us; the dignity of Earls and of Lords of Parliament is older than the others. Now those called simply Lords and the rest of the nobility, of whom there is a great number and force, in whom is really to be found the strength of the kingdom, made up the second order by elections from themselves; that was done to avoid a large crowd; this order King James (in our lifetime) either recalled from desuetude or, perceiving the need, added it as a new one to the others. Citizens sent hither from their towns made up the third order. Bishops likewise (while they still existed) and in former times the other leaders whom they called Prelates, completed a just and full Senate; they were classed first because of reverence for sacred matters. Now knightly honour was greatly valued among our forebears, and was only with good cause conferred on even the most noble, as a reward for military valour. But now with a different complexion to affairs, after it has come down to the courts and cities, it has become neglected and worthless to the better class: and especially when not long since this honour was made hereditary as a result of begging a too easily inclined prince, it was opened to all by purchase. The order of armigerous men, which is common in our neighbour England, is with us unknown and neglected. Here too I wish to inform my reader, that although over the whole area of our kingdom the population live in few villages, it must not thence be deduced that there is a shortage of inhabitants. The reason for this is as follows: colonists interested in agriculture felt themselves from the very beginning to be confined in villages, nor was there sufficient prospect for country affairs in such close vicinity. For at first regions were divided into villages, and each of these was assigned only as much arable land as could be broken by four ploughs each year. These sections of land were called in the old language davochs: they still remain in upland regions and the boundaries are recognised although the holdings are divided. But when woods had been cut down, four ploughs were no longer sufficient, and laxity in borders harmed agriculture; hence the owners placed the boundaries on the individual divided fields according to abilities, so that continuous holdings were not contiguous. I remember seeing examples of this in my early years. Immediately abandoning the villages, individuals migrated to their own land, where some veins of richer soil attracted them and there made their homes, and so it continues today. But now let us go through the individual areas.
These prefectures contain in themselves various provinces and tracts, distinguished for the most part by their own names and boundaries; an explanation of many names can be given with difficulty, of some not even thus. ‘Strath’ which is prefixed to some denotes in the old tongue a valley or tract by the course of a river girded with mountains. ‘Inver’ or ‘Aber’ means the confluence of rivers or their mouths at the sea. But there are many which it is an idle task to investigate. The old inhabitants for Ptolemy were the Taezali, and the farthest promontory to the east (for him Taezalum promontory) is today called Buchan Ness, ‘ness’ meaning promontory.