IN a fine passage of "Marmion" there appears a noble Lord of Douglas blood,

"Whose meek and thoughtful eye
Showed little pride of prelacy;
More pleased that, in a barbarous age,
He gave rude Scotland Virgil's page,
Than that beneath his rule he held
The bishopric of fair Dunkeld."

So, too, in the troubled times of the Civil War, a baron of high descent and broad possessions, living in the part of Scotland most ravaged by the contending armies,-ego in ea regione vitam agens-he wrote himself-ubi omnium turbarum centrum, — though exhibiting the qualities of a judicious and temperate statesman, has left as his most enduring title to remembrance his services to the geography, the history, and the antiquities of his native land. Robert Gordon of Pitlurg and Straloch, still esteemed in the North as "The Great Straloch," was, says his contemporary Sir Thomas Urquhart, "one of the ablest men in Scotland in the mathematical faculties." He was described by Dr Garden as "a gentleman of universal Learning and great Prudence, universally beloved, esteemed by both sides, a Lover of his King and country, and a subscriber of the Covenant, but with such Limitations as excluded every meaning contrary to his allegiance to the King. His friend Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond, "a good and Learned man and a just Judge," refers to him as one "who like the people of Israel

in the Land of Goshen had enjoyed a peaceable Retirement amid the Tumults of War." The judgment of a distinguished historian is that "without the common desire of fame or any more sordid motive he devoted his life and talents to illustrate the history of his country," and that "the topographical descriptions that accompany his maps are the most valuable contributions ever made to the physical history of the country."

Robert Gordon was the head of the oldest cadet branch of the great northern house of Gordon, the family of Pitlurg being the senior line of the "Jock and Tam Gordons," of whom came the majority of the families of the name in the North. He was thus the senior direct male descendant of Sir Adam Gordon, to whom Robert the Bruce gave the Lordship of Strathbogie in 1319. John of Sourdargue, his ancestor, was the eldest son of Sir John Gordon, who fought at Otterburn, by a hand-fasting connection, and nephew of Sir Adam Gordon who fell at Homildon, and whose daughter and heiress, Elizabeth Gordon, was the ancestress of the noble house of Huntly. The favourite designation of the family was that "of Pitlurg," from their lands in Banffshire, but they also held from time to time estates in Strathbogie, Buchan, and the Mearns. A tradition, discarded by Lord Huntly in his Records of Aboyne, relates that on the morning of the

battle of Brechin in the days of the Douglas Treason, the first Earl of Huntly, son of Elizabeth Gordon, "placed his second son Gight at the head of the Gordon clan, but the Laird of Pitlurg, as chief of the Gordons, claimed the leadership, which being refused, he drew aside, pulled off his black bonnet, and waving it aloft, exclaimed, 'A' that's come o' me follow me,' on which the whole clan deserted Huntly and rallied round Pitlurg." Huntly at once submitted with good-humour, and obtained the victory, of which one of his vassals, following too hard in the pursuit, and mixing with the Lindsays, heard "the Tiger Earl" of Crawford say in his own hall of Finhaven that he would willingly spend seven years in hell to win such a victory as Huntly had got that day. The tradition as told may have some anachronisms, but it probably had a basis of fact, and indicates the position Pitlurg was recognised as holding. His descendant Straloch is said to have refused a baronetcy, giving as his reason that "he would rather be the oldest baron of his name than the youngest baronet."

Robert Gordon's grandfather, "with all that accompanied him under Huntley's banner (and 29 Aberdeen's men), was slain on the field of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547." His father, Sir John Gordon, stood high in the confidence of James VI. and his chief, the Earl of Huntly, and was the intermediary in the reconciliation after the affair of the Spanish Blanks and the Battle of Glenlivet, at which the defeat of

Argyll, though representative of King and Kirk, by Huntly and Erroll was tempered in the Royal mind by the reflection, "Fair fa' ye, Geordie Gordon, for sending him hame sae like a subject." After the King's march to the North it was to Pitlurg that he committed the custody of the Castle of Strathbogie and the uplifting of Huntly's rents, while the great barons of the Gordon olan, Cluny, Gight, Cairnburrow, and Buckie, had at his own house in 1593 drawn up "speciall instructions" for him as the representative of Aberdeenshire in Parliament as to proposals to be submitted to the King, the English Ambassador, and the Kirk. The relations of friendship and trust in which he stood to his Sovereign are indicated by the King's request for a fine haikney" in view of the Royal marriage in 1589, by his "making speciall choiss" of him to be present at "the baptism of our darrest son now approching" in 1594, and by the conversion into blench of the tenure of his barony of Kinmundy, the reddendo being a pair of gilt spurs, "for the good and gratuitous service rendered to us." Sir John Gordon had married Isobel, daughter of Lord Forbes, and in 1610 was succeeded by his eldest son John in his extensive estates, including the lands of Pitlurg and others in Banff, held of the Bishop of Moray; Botarie, in Cairnie, held of the Marquis of Huntly; and the barony of Kinmundy, in Deer, in Buchan, with which had been incorporated the large property

66

held by the family in Drumblade in Strathbogie, and the lands of Gilcomston, near Aberdeen. To these John Gordon added Straloch in New Machar. He retained the Royal favour, for in 1609 King James wrote to him from Whitehall, thanking him heartily for "ane for "ane tersell of falcoun," but he fell into delicate health, and gradually transferred his estates to his brother Robert before his death in 1619.

Robert Gordon was born at Kinmundy on 14th September 1580. He studied at Aberdeen, and was the first graduate of Marischal College, then recently founded by George Earl Marischal. In 1598 he went to Paris, where he was on intimate terms with the cultured John Gordon, afterwards Dean of Salisbury, who had been saved by King Henry III. at the massacre of St Bartholomew, and "with the famous Mr Robert Bruce who, for an insolent speech to the king, was banished to France, where," says Straloch, "coming to himself, after many repeated sollicitations, he obtained leave of King James to return to Scotland, provided he confined himself to the northern parts." "I saw him," he adds, "during his exile in France, and had frequent familiar conversations with him there, and after his return I heard him preach at Aberdeen and saw a great change upon him: his exile had done him service: he was now become humble, mild, and gentle." On his father's death young Gordon returned home, having apparently inherited the property of Fechil, by

which he is first designed. He married in 1608 Katherine, daughter of Irvine of Lenturk, by whom he had seventeen children, and resided for some years at Kinmundy, where five of his elder children were born. After obtaining the property of Straloch, about ten miles from Aberdeen, he fixed his residence there, and though he soon succeeded to the old heritage of Pitlurg retained the designation "of Straloch."

Three of Straloch's sons were active Cavaliers. The second, John of Fechil, "famous for his writing tales," was one of the little party of seven mounted men who, shortly before the battle of the Bridge of Dee, encountered an equal force of Covenanting cavalry, defeated them and took two prisoners, John Gordon capturing an Angus laird. William, the third son, "a pretty gentleman of great wit and humour, but immoderately given to his pleasures," and "a very able and understanding gentleman," was a follower of Montrose, and was intrusted by the Marquis of Huntly with a mission to the Earl of Seaforth. After Montrose disbanded, he went with Lord Aboyne to Paris, where "they were 80 overwhelmed with grief on hearing of the King's murder that they died the one within a few days of the other." A younger brother Arthur, who also fought for the King, became a successful advocate, and was the father of the founder of Gordon's Hospital in Aberdeen. The seventh son James, who became parson of Rothiemay, inherited his father's tastes,