History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns

EDZELL — KIKK OF NEUDOS. 19
laid under heavy obligations in compiling his work ;" and
although he was indebted to it for the greater part of the Ap-
pendix, in which he treats of the natural history of Orkney, Barry
nowhere acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Low, whose manu-
scripts, it is believed, are still in existence.
As a preacher, Mr. Low was good, plain, and practical ; and
although he had the misfortune to lose his eyesight five years
before his death, his blindness, so far from disqualifying him from
preaching, improved him very much. He dispensed the sacra-
ment three times during his incumbency, and intended a little
before his death to dispense it a fourth time. Dissent was un-
known in the parish in his day ; and although there are now
seven or eight different places of worship, the standard of re-
ligious knowledge and practice is said to have been higher
then than at any subsequent period.*
Apart from the old parish kirk, the district of Edzell can
boast of the remains of no fewer than three other ancient eccle-
siastical establishments. These are Dalbog, Colmeallie, and
Neudos.f The first is mentioned in the ancient Taxatio, and the
printed Retours ; the second is merely recorded as a so-called
Druidical circle, and as such, will be noticed in the subsequent
Chapter ; and the third was a well-known separate parish down
to a comparatively late period. Unlike its fellows, Neudos lies
in the county of Kincardine, immediately north-east of the estate
of The Burn, and part of it anciently belonged to the wide-spread
and lucrative Regality of Torphichen, the principal preceptory of
the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who were superiors of
lands throughout all the counties of Scotland, with the exception
of the shires of Argyle, Bute, and Orkney.
The date of the grant of lands in the parish of Neudos
to the knights is unknown ; but the parish was in the diocese
of St. Andrews, and paid an annual to that cathedral of four
marks Scots. The thick, closely cemented foundations of
* I am indebted for many of these interesting particulars regarding Mr. Low, to the kind-
ness of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Traill, the present incumbent of Birsay and Harry, whose informant,
Mr. Oeorge Louttit, late parochial schoolmaster, and now in his eighty-fifth year, " bears a kindly
recollection of Mr. Low, to whom he was greatly indebted for the education he received."
t The affix dos, means " a bush or thicket ;" and patches of whins and broom are more
than ordinarily luxuriant in the district at this day. We are not aware of the meaning of
the prefix Neu.
c 2