the monks of the clan monastery, and of their brethren settled at the College of Roseisle, can be too surely divined. Unless they managed to escape, which is not very probable, they would be put to the sword by the Pagan Norsemen. Similar acts of cruelty are recorded of the latter in the case of other monasteries, such as Lindisfarne and Iona. At all events, it is significant that the church of Burghead, shown by its baptistery to have been the scat of the chief presbyter or bishop of the province, henceforth disappears. The earliest records of the diocese of Moray, which commence in the twelfth century, contain no allusion to it.

There is much uncertainty as to the length of time the Norsemen maintained a footing in Moray. A century and a half after Sigurd's invasion, when they had been converted to Christianity, Thorfinn, Earl of Caithness and the Orkneys, is said to have once more landed with an invading army on its shores. He was met by a king of Scotland, whom the Sagas call Karl or Kali Hundason, and whom Dr. Skene and others identify with the unfortunate Duncan. The headquarters of the Norsemen appear to have been at Torfness, a circumstance that certainly points to that promontory having been Burghead. Near Torfness the decisive battle was fought which ended in the defeat and flight of King Karl. "And," adds one of the Sagas, "some say "he was slain." Dr. Skene supposes that in the confusion resulting from this disaster, Macbeth, then Mormaer of Moray, may have taken the opportunity of making terms for himself with the conqueror, and that, after assassinating his royal master near Elgin, he took possession of the vacant throne.

If the statements of the Sagas regarding the Norse invasions of the mainland of Scotland are somewhat confused, those of our own annalists are still more so. The fullest account they give of these inroads is to be found in Boece. But he so mingles fact and fiction that it seems hopeless to attempt to separate them. Apparently in his narrative of the siege and capture of Narmin or the "Burg" of Moray by the "Danes" and its speedy re-capture by Malcolm II., he has described as one event the two invasions of the Sagas, relating the chief incidents of each without due reference to the date of their occurrence, or to the identity of the chief actors. Malcolm II. is one of his favourite heroes; and accordingly without scruple he assigns to him the glory

of having expelled the "Danes" from Morayland. At the same time it is possible to carry contempt for the authority of Loece too far. There is generally a grain of truth, if not more, in most of his marvellous tales. In the case before us his story bears internal evidence of being founded in the main on the earlier event. The name "Burg" given to the stronghold, the configuration of the headland, together with the alterations said to have been made on the defences, are all undoubted proofs in favour of his veracity, and oblige us to accept, if with deductions, his description of its walls and towers, his account of the battle of Kinloss, which decided its fate, and his assertion that the native garrison, after their surrender, were treacherously massacred by their pagan conquerors.

The first and second types of Scottish sculptured stones are both, as had been seen, represented at Burghead-the Incised Bulls being somewhat anomalous. The stones of both types are pre-Norman-that is to say, they are anterior in time to the influences that modelled anew the native church under Margaret, the wife of Malcolm Canmore, and her sons, and that led, by the establishment of diocesan episcopacy, to the extinction of the old Celtic Church. The great changes that were then made may, perhaps, explain the conduct of the St. Vigean's masons already referred to. Dr. Anderson is disposed to assign the decorative monuments of the second type to a period "later than the commencement of the tenth century, and the incised monuments to the period immediately preceding."* If we assume that there were at Burghead examples of interlaced and fret-work at the time it was captured and its church destroyed by Earl Sigurd (A.D. 875), it would seem to be almost necessary to extend backwards by half-a-century or so the first of these dates. The exact relation in which the sculptures all stood to the church itself cannot be stated for certain. To judge from the few surviving examples, the ecclesiastical buildings of those times were of a very plain character, and almost, if not quite, destitute of ornamentation-a connecting link, in fact, between the wooden structures of the early Columban Church and the gorgeous fanes of a later day.

Of the few war-like or personal ornaments that have been found at Burghead, the most artistic is a relic now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries

Scotland in Early Christian Times (Sec. Ser.), pp. 95-96.

of Scotland, which has been pronounced to be the mounting of a horn of either Scandinavian or Saxon manufacture, and of an age not prior to the tenth century.*

When the shores of Moray were freed from the Norsemen and no longer exposed to the invasion of an foe whose base of operations was the sea, Burghead ceased to be a place of arms. During four centuries it had been the most important fortress in the North of Scotland. There was now no necessity for such coast defences. In the disturbed ages that followed, the fields of strife were no longer on the seabcard or in the Islands of the North. Burgs of all kinds, situated there, having served their purpose were deserted and left to crumble away unheeded. Accordingly, Burghead is lost to view, till it re-appears in Blaeu's Atlas (1653) as "Burgh olim Narmin." Its walls, under the influence of the elements aided by the use made of them as a quarry for building materials, had gradually become ruins. There is every probability that the "Well" was filled up by the sudden fall of a mass of building in its neighbourhood; and a possible clue to the date is afforded by a bronze jug or measure said to have been found in it, which seems to be of late medieval manufacture.

Burghead, known as Brochsea, or more generally in the locality as THE BROCH, was during the 17th and 18th centuries a village of about 400 inhabitants, two-thirds of whom were fishermen and their families. In the year 1799 Sir Archibald Dunbar, Bart, who had been for some time proprietor of part of it, acquired the whole, and soon after made over his interest to a syndicate interested in the prosperity of the county. Nature had pointed out

*[For the accompanying wood-cut the Society is indebted to the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.-ED.]

Burghead as the most suitable place on the south coast of the Moray Firth for the erection of a safe and commodious harbour, the want of which was greatly felt; and it was to supply this want that the scheme of joint-ownership was framed. The harbour was completed according to the original con

tract in the summer of 1809.

Unfortunately the improvements thus carried out led to the destruction of the greater part of the ancient fortifications. The property comprised only the promontory itself. Materials were required for making up the ground along the shore, and more space was needed on the headland for building purposes. In the year 1819, Mr. William Young, who had been throughout the leading spirit of the whole undertaking, purchased the shares of the other proprietors, and made further improvements on the harbour. Dying in 1842, he was succeeded by a nephew, at whose decease the present proprietor, Mr. H. W. Young, inherited Burghead.*

*Much that is interesting regarding modern Burghead will be found in Notes on Burghead, Ancient and Modern, containing Notices of Families connected with the Place at different Periods: By Robert Young. (Printed for Private Circulation), Elgin, 1868. Mr. Young refers very briefly to its ancient history, and, sharing the common belief in the spurious "Richard,” accepts, without any hesitation, the conclusions of General Roy. But his account of its modern history, and especially of the families who have possessed it, in whole or in part, from the beginning of the twelfth century to the year 1805—the Moravias, the Cheynes, the Fedderets, the Douglasses of Pittendreich, the Keiths, the Sutherlands of Duffus, the Gordons of Gordonstown, and the Dunbars, all of whom were descended from, or collaterally connected with, the great family of De Moravia-is full and trustworthy. Here Mr. Young, who was a nephew of the first Mr. Wm. Young of Burghead, handled materials with which his wide knowledge of the genealogy of those who had owned the soil of Moray during many generations, made him quite familiar. Nor was this his only contribution to the historical antiquities of his native province. In 1871 he published a History of the Parish of Spynie; and in 1879, Annals of the Parish and Burgh of Elgin, a work of great labour and value.

NOTE ON THE MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORDS CLAVIE, DOURIE, CHURLS, STRUTS.

Regarding Clavie Sir Arthur Mitchell writes :-" In the church records the word Clavie appears to be used as the equivalent of torch. It is not probable, however, that these two "words are really synonymous. The most likely meaning of clavie is that suggested to me "by Mr. Joseph Anderson. He thinks that it is an old or altered form of clivvie, which "Jamieson gives as a Banffshire word, meaning a cleft stick for holding a rush-light. In "Shetland the same word takes the form of clivin, the tongs; and Mr. Laurenson states that "it is still in use among the fishermen. This makes the etymology of the word plain; and "clavie would not be the torch, but the thing which carried either the torch or fire in any "case." He adds, "It has been suggested to me by that great Celtic scholar, Iain Camp"bell of Islay, that clavie may come from the word cliabh, a basket; and certainly the "basket-looking instrument, in which the fire is now carried at Burghead, gives some support to this view of the origin of the word." (Pro. Soc. of Antiq. of Scotland, Vol. X., p. 629, Note).

Since the preceding pages were in type Mr. David Donaldson, F. E.I.S., editor of the last edition of Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, has sent me, in reply to a letter, the following interesting remarks, which I have his permission to append. He says:-" For the origin of "the Burning of the Clavie we must search far back in the records of our native tribes; and as these are mostly mere traditions, any answer we may get can at best be little more than a happy guess or a probability. Certainly, however, the ceremony is connected with the "ancient fire-worship, and seems to be of the nature of a sacrifice. The purpose of the "sacrifice is also clear; but the thing originally sacrificed is not so evident.

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"That it was a barrel cannot readily be accepted: but whatever it was at first, its having come latterly to be a barrel is easily accounted for as soon as fishing became a trade, and 66 transport of fish an important matter. The remote origin of the rite and the circumstances "of the people suggest that the article devoted to the fire-god was probably that which was "used for capturing or carrying the fish, or in which they were stored or kept. If the former, "it was in all likelihood some kind of wicker-work vessel; and if the latter, a simple box or "chest. And whichever it was it would be called by its native Celtic name, and that name "would be known and used wherever there were such native fishermen and such fire-worship. "On turning to our native Celtic language for the root of this term Clavie, we find cliabh "(pronounced kleav), a creel, hamper, basket; and from this comes cibbe or cliffe, the "name given to the rough basket or creel with a rope attached, in which the Highland "crofters to this day carry manure a-field on their back. Now, if the original clavie was "some such creel or basket, the burning of it would be a rite similar in its nature to that of 'burning the new cart that brought home the ark from the country of the Philistines-a "solemn devotional act or prayer for good luck.

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"Again, if the vessel used was the store-vessel of the family, or of the chief of the com'munity, then it was probably a simple box or chest, without the lid-a fish-ark, it might "be called, as the meal-store was, and is still called the meal-ark. And just as in the case "of tea, the chest containing it came to be used as a term of measure or quantity-a chest of