there are now five and a few shepherds. One cannot help admiring the
industry, economy, and thrift of these old Highland farmers, who in
such numbers could live and thrive and pay higher rents to the landlord
than the few who are now in possession of the land.

Aberuchill Castle was for nearly three centuries the seat of the
Campbells of Aberuchill and Kilbryde. It was originally built in 1602,
but has since been modernised and enlarged. The Crown granted a
charter of the lands of Aberuchill in 1596 to Colin Campbell, second
son of Sir Colin Campbell of Lawers. His son James was made a baronet
of Nova Scotia by Charles I. in 1627. He fell fighting for Charles II.
at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Sir Colin, only son of Sir James,
succeeded him. He was the most distinguished of the family. Bred to
the law, he rose to the position of Lord of Session with the title of
Lord Aberuchill. Sir Colin was a Whig and a Presbyterian when the most
of the gentry of Strathearn were either Episcopalians or Popish
Jacobites. His name is associated with the massacre of Glencoe,
inasmuch as he was a member of the Council that refused the certificate
of the Sheriff-Depute of Argyle that M'Donald of Glencoe had taken the
oath of allegiance to King William, unless they got a warrant to
receive it from the King. From 1693 to 1702 he represented the County
of Perth in the Scottish Parliament, and died in 1704. From the
Campbells, the estate passed into the hands of the Drummonds. It is
now the property of Captain Robert Dewhurst, son of George C. Dewhurst,
Esq., lately deceased.

It would be unpardonable to write anything about Comrie without making
allusion to the earthquakes which have made it famous. In the
Statistical Account of Scotland, published in the year 1794, the Rev.
Mr M'Diarmid, minister of the parish, gives an account of the first
recorded earthquake in the district. During the autumn of 1789 loud
noises, unaccompanied by any concussion, were heard by the inhabitants
of Glenlednock; but on the 5th of November of that year they were
alarmed by a loud rumbling noise, accompanied with a severe shock of
earthquake, which was felt over a tract of country of more than twenty
miles in extent. The Rev. Mr Mackenzie, successor to Mr M'Diarmid,
writing in 1838, in the last Statistical Account, says that "at and
after the time of the last Statistical Account the earthquakes were so
frequent and violent, and accompanied