Summer at the Lake of Monteith

Inchmahome. 1 5
house on the island, it appears that it was originally in
the diocese of Dunblane; for, says that paper, "the said
Bishop of Dunblane, in the name of his church, for him-
self and all his successors, shall renounce all right which
the said bishops or their predecessors, in the name of
the church of Dunblane, have, had, or might or could
have, in lands, or money-rents received from lands, and
in all revenues and rents annually drawn in name of pen-
sions from the church of the Earldom of Menteith."
Inchmahome was united by James IV. to the Chapel
Royal of Stirling, but was afterwards dissolved from the
College, and bestowed by James V. on John Erskine, third
son of Lord Erskine. Erskine having outlived his brothers,
succeeded his father as Lord Erskine. He afterwards ac-
quired the title of Earl of Mar, and was elected Regent of
Scotland. It appears from an Act in the reign of James
VI., that Cardross, in Monteith, belonged to the Priory;
for, according to said Act, entituled " Act of annexation of
Forfaulted Landis and Rentis to the Crown," the lands of
Cardross are therein described as " feu lands of Inchma-
home."
That Inchmahome had long been an occasional royal
residence is fully authenticated by history. We find from
Buchanan that Duncan II., King of Scotland, was murdered
here in the year 1094, by M'Pender, the Earl of Mearns.
MTender was bribed by Donald Bane, the deposed mon-
arch, to assassinate his king, and being a factious nobleman,
marched to Monteith, under the cloud of night, and suc-
ceeded in killing Duncan and afterwards making his escape.
Tradition asserts that King Edgar, who reigned from the