Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

INVERNESS.
front decorated with four elegant pilasters ; and it
is surrounded at some distance with iron pali-
sades, enclosing a spacious area. It is commo-
diously and salubriously fitted up in the interior,
has a suite of hot and cold baths, is maintained chiefly
by subscription and benignly conducted, and may, in
most points of view, compare with any institution of
its class in Scotland. — The High church, situated
near the foot of Church-street, and devoted to Eng-
lish preaching, is a large plain edifice, standing com-
pactly with an old square tower, which is said to
have been built by Oliver Cromwell, and whose soft
clear-toned bell is believed to have been brought by
him from the ancient cathedral of Fortrose The
Gaelic church, situated beside the High church, and
appropriated exclusively to Gaelic, has no exterior
attraction, but possesses within an old and elegantly
carved oaken pulpit. — The North kirk, situated in
Chapel-street, is a large and handsome building.. —
The Episcopalian chapel, standing opposite the High
church, is a neat structure, surmounted by a cupola.
The other places of worship in the town are all
pleasant and creditable ecclesiastical fabrics.
A wooden bridge, which existed in the time of
Cromwell, and is characterized by one of his officers
as ' the weakest, in his opinion, that ever straddled
over so strong a stream,' stood a few yards below
the present old bridge, and communicated with the
town on the right bank of the river by an arched
way which perforated, or was surmounted by a
house. Upwards of 100 persons formed a crowd
upon this fragile structure, and caused its fall, yet
all escaped destruction The old bridge was built
in 1685, at a cost of £1,300, defrayed by voluntary
contribution throughout the kingdom. Between
the second and third arches is a dismal vault, used
first as a jail and afterwards as a madhouse, the air-
hole or grating of which is still visible. This appal-
ling place of durance, whose inmate was perched
between the constant hoarse sound of the stream
beneath, and the occasional trampling of feet and
rattle of wheels overhead, . was in use so late as 30
years ago, and is said not to have been abandoned
till its last miserable inmate, a maniac, had been de-
voured by rats The new bridge is a wooden erec-
tion, built in 1808, by public and private subscrip-
tion At two beautiful islets in the Ness, very nearly
united, measuring respectively li and 1-j- furlong in
length, and lying about a mile above the town, two
airy and handsome suspension-bridges have been flung
across to connect them, the one with the right bank
and the other with the left. These islands — once
noted as the scene of rural feasts and semi-bacchana-
lian orgies given by the magistrates to the judges at
the assize-courts — have been tastefully cut into plea-
sure-walks, profusely planted and variously beauti-
fied as public promenades; and, easily approached by
the ornamental bridges, and lying in the bosom of an
almost luscious landscape, they probably excel all
public grounds of their class in Scotland.
The extinct and ancient public structures of the
town present various associations of stirring interest.
The oldest or original castle of Inverness, that
which stood on 'the Crown,' has for centuries been
untraceable, except by traditional identification of
its site. This edifice was very probably, as Sbak-
speare assumes, the property of Macbeth, who, being
by birth the maormor, or 'great man of Ross,' and
becoming by marriage that also of Moray, could
hardly fail to have the mastery of a stronghold at
the mouth of the Ness ; and, true to the description
of the prince of dramatic poets, ' this castle had a
pleasant seat,' the air around which
" Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses ;"
but, according to the concurrent opinion of modern
antiquarians, it was not, as Shakspeare represents,
and as Boethius and Buchanan relate, the scene of
King Duncan's murder by Macbeth, — that deed hav-
ing been perpetrated at a spot called, in the Chro-
nicon Elegaieum,._BoM<7o/«ane, 'a smithy,' and placed
by some near Inverness, but by most near Elgin.
When Malcolm Canmore vanquished his father's
murderer, he naturally seized his strongholds, and
dealt with them at will ; and he then razed his castle
of Inverness, and built instead of it, and as a royal
residence, a fortress on the summit of the Castle-hill,
the site of the present county-buildings. This new
castle figured for several centuries as unitedly a seat
of royalty and a place of military strength ; receiving
at intervals within its precincts the persons of the
kings and princes of Scotland, and regularly serving
as a vantage-ground, whence they or their servants
overawed the insubordinate and turbulent north.
Shaw Macduff, son of the 6th Earl of Fife, the
assumer of the name of Mackintosh, the assistant of
Malcolm in crushing an insurrection in Moray, and
the acquirer of great property in the north, was made
hereditary governor of the castle. In 1245, it be-
came the prison of Sir John Bisset of Lovat, for the
imputed crimes of connection with the murder of the
Earl of Athole, and of fealtyship to the Lord of the
Isles. Soon afterwards, it was captured, during the
minority of one of its hereditary keepers, by the
Cummings of Badenoch ; and thence till the begin-
ning of next century, it remained in their possession.
In 1303, it was seized by the partisans of Edward I.
of England ; and, in turn, it was captured by the
friends of Robert Bruce. The patriot founder of a
new dynasty of Scottish kings was a wanderer in the
Western islands when this key-fortress of the North
became his ; and he is said to have been inspirited
by the news of the acquisition, to that course of dar-
ing enterprise which conducted him to triumph and
the throne. From Bruce's time till that of James
I., the castle was retained in the immediate power
of the Crown ; and at the accession of the latter
monarch, it was repaired and refortified, and again
put into the hereditary keeping of the captain of the
clan Chattan,the chief of the Macintoshes. In 1427,
James I., when in a progress through the north, to
castigate some turbulent chiefs, held a parliament in
the castle, summoning to it all his northern barons.
Alexander, Lord of the Isles, was, on this occasion,
made prisoner for a year; and, when freed from du-
rance, he returned with an army at his heels to wreak
vengeance on his prison ; and, imposing on the autho-
rities by pretence of friendship, and consigning the
town to burning and pillage, he made a bold attempt
to seize the castle, but was repelled by its governor.
In 1455, John, his successor, quite as turbulent as
be, or more probably Donald Balloch of Isla, acting
as John's lieutenant, rushed down upon the town,
and, while abandoning it like Alexander to the flames
and plunder, made a more successful effort against
the castle, and took it by surprise. In 1464, the
castle was visited and temporarily occupied by James
III.; and in 1499, by James IV. In 1508, the
keepership of the castle was conferred hereditarily
on the Earl of Hiintly ; and though eventually be-
coming the most merely ideal of orftces, it went regu-
larly down to his descendants, and was held by the
late Duke of Gordon at his death. In 1555, the
castle received the queen-regent, Mary of Guise, and
was the scene of a convention of estates and extraor-
dinary courts summoned by her to quiet the High-
lands, and punish caterans and political offenders ;
and, at the same time, it endungeoned the Earl of
Caithness, for breach of her laws and defiance of her
authority, in affording his protection to freebooters.