turday, and Sunday; this same day was John the Baptist's
Day." His progress and the places at which he stayed are
circumstantially narrated in the Itinerary from which we quote. He
returned to Berwick on 22nd August, and the chronicler adds--"And he
conquered the realm of Scotland, and searched it, as is above written,
within twenty-one weeks without any more."[1]

Attention is directed to the terms of the words of the Norman French
Itinerary in reference to the King having taken up his residence in
Auchterarder Castle. "_Le Mescredy devaunt Seint Johne passa le roi le
Mere d'Escoce et jut a Outreard, son chastelle._" Reference is made in
the narrative to many other castles in which the King lay, but only in
this instance is the castle stated to have belonged to him. This is
conclusive evidence that the Castle was the property of the Crown, and
that the King took up his abode in it as such.

The halting of Edward I. with his army at Auchterarder was not the only
occasion upon which Auchterarder received an embattled host. In 1332
the Scottish army of Donald, the Earl of Mar, 30,000 strong, lay at
Auchterarder previous to the disastrous Battle of Dupplin,[2] and in
1559 the army of the Dowager Queen Mary, under the Duke of Hamilton and
Monsieur d'Osel, lay there, prepared to encounter the Lords of the
Congregation.[3] The most disastrous military visit and the last was
when the Earl of Mar, in 1716, burnt the town.

Auchterarder being the only Royal Burgh in Strathearn, was the head
burgh of that County Palatine and the seat of a Sheriffdom, the area of
which was probably co-extensive with Strathearn. In the interregnum
after the death of Alexander III. the office of Sheriff was vested in
Malcolm of Innerpeffray, who, in the _compotus_ of the extent of all
the King's lands of Scotland for the period between 25th April, 1304,
and 28th February, 1305, accounted as "Sheriff of Uthrardor of its
issues, iocs."; and again, "from said Sir Malcolm of the issues of the
Sheriffdom of Uthrardor and the farms of Glendowiche, L58."[4]

The Sheriff figures in a transaction in the Scottish War of
Independence. There was an Inquisition at Perth held on 1st September,
1305, before Malise, Earl of Stratherne, lieutenant of the warden north
of Forth, and Malcolm de Inverpefray, Knight, Deputy of John de
Sandale, Chamberlain, and William de Bevercotts, Chancellor of
Scotland, on certain articles touching the person of Michael de