tion of the family of Reidheuchs or Ridochs with Strathearn began
in 1502, when King James IV. granted a charter of confirmation of the
lands of Tullychedile, Culturagane, &c., to his familiar servitor and
steward, James Redeheuche, burgess of Stirling. In 1573, these and
other lands acquired by him were erected into the Barony of
Tullichiddil. In 1542, James Reidheuch of Tullichiddil is mentioned as
dead, and it is not till 1610 that another James appears in the line of
the Reidheuchs of Tullichiddil. The probability is that the stone here
figured belongs to the seventeenth century, as it was only then that
the name Reidheuche began to be spelt Ridoche. Of course, it is
impossible to say whether this is the tomb-stone of the James Ridoche
of 1610, or of a successor; but there seems to be nothing against the
idea of the stone being as old at least as the date thus indicated."

Tullichettle must have been an old parish. Shortly after the
Reformation, in the year 1572, it was served by John Edmeston,
exhorter, and in 1574 by William Drummond, who had also under his
charge Comrie, Monivaird, Monzie, and Crieff. The ruins of the church
are still to be seen within the wall of the churchyard, but of the old
manse there is no trace left now. We have often been asked the
derivation of the word Ruchill, the name of the river, which, rising at
the head of Glenartney, passes the graveyard of Tullichettle and falls
into the Earn at the village of Comrie. It is compounded of two Gaelic
words--_ruadh_ (red), and _tuill_ (flood). _Ruadhthuill_, therefore,
is the red flood, and any one who has seen the red turgid waters of the
Ruchill in time of flood will see that the name is significant of the
thing itself. The word occurs in a shorter form--Ruel, a river in
Argyllshire, which gives its name to the valley through which it
flows--viz., Glendaruel. In the good old days when our Highland glens
and straths were thickly populated, every hill and dale and crag and
knoll had its name, and every strath and valley had its traditions.
From many of our Highland glens the people are gone, and their
traditions along with them. Sir Walter Scott, however, has rendered
famous at least one of the glens at the head of Strathearn and
preserved a few of its traditions. Who ever read that beautiful poem,
"The Lady of the Lake," but knows something of Glenartney, Benvoirlich,
and Uam-Var. Here the chase, which he sings in the first canto,