Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

GEANTOWN
holiday resort. In 1877 a public hall, with 400 sittings,
was built at a cost of £1500 ; a gravitation water supply,
giving 68 gallons a head per diem, was introduced in
1881 ; and Grantown besides has a post oiBce, with
money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments,
branches of the Caledonian, National, and Royal Banks,
the Strathspey National Security Savings' Bank (1846),
offices or agencies of 12 insurance companies, 3 hotels,
a court-house, a gas-light company, an orphanage (1824),
a public library (1859), and an agricultural society (1812).
Friday is market-day, and 16 fairs are held in the course
of the year. The great event in Grantown's history is
the visit paid to it by the Queen and Prince Albert
during the 'First Great Expedition' to Glen Feshie
(4 Sept. 1860), a visit thus described in the Queen's
Journal ; — ' On and on we went, till at length we saw
lights, and drove through a long and straggling " toun,"
and turned doun a smaU court to the door of the inn
[the Grant Arms]. Here we got out quickly — Lady
Churchill and General Grey not waiting for us. We
went up a small staircase, and were shown to our bed-
room at the top of it — very small but clean — with a
large four-post bed which nearly filled the whole room.
Opjjosite was the drawing and dining room in one —
very tidy and well sized. Then came the room where
Albert dressed, which was very small. The two maids
(Jane Shackle was with me) had driven over by another
road in the waggonette. Made ourselves " clean and
tidy," and then sat down to our dinner. Grant and
Brown were to have waited on us, but were "bashful,"
and did not. A ringleted woman did everything ; and,
when dinner was over, removed the cloth and placed
the bottle of wine (our own which we had brought) on
the table with the glasses, which was the old English
fashion. The dinner was very fair, and all very clean —
soup, "hodge-podge," mutton broth with vegetables,
which I did not much relish, fowl with white sauce,
good roast lamb, very good potatoes, besides one or two
other dishes, which I did not taste, ending with a good
tart of cranberries. A fter dinner I tried to write part
of this account (but the talking round me confused me),
while Albert plaj'ed at "patience." Then went away,
to begin undressing, and it was about half-past eleven
when we got to bed. — ( Wednesday, Sept. 5. ) A misty,
rainy morning. Had not slept very soundly. We got
up rather early, and sat working and reading in the
drawing-room till the breakfast was ready, for which
we had to wait some little time. Good tea and bread
and butter, and some excellent porridge. Jane Shackle
(who was very useful and attentive) said that they had
all supped together, namely, the two maids, and Grant,
Broivn, Stewart, and Walker- (who was still there), and
were very merry in the "commercial room." The
people were very amusing about us. The %voman came
in while they were at their dinner, and said to Grant,
"Dr Grey wants you," which nearly upset the gravity
of all the others; then they told Jane, "Your lady
gives no trouble ; " and Grant in the morning called up
to Jane, "Does his lordship want me?" One could
look on the street, which is a very long wide one, T\ith
detached houses, from our window. It was perfectly
quiet, no one stirring, except here and there a man
driving a cart, or a boy going along on his errand.
General Grey bought himself a watch in a shop for 2Z. !
At length, at about ten minutes to ten o'clock, we
started in the same carriage and the same way as yester-
day, and drove up to Castle Grant, Lord Seafield's
place. It was drizzling almost the whole time. AVe
did not get out, but drove back, having to pass through
Grantown again, where evidently "the murder was
out," for all the people were in the street, and the land-
lady waved her pocket-handkerchief, and the ringleted
maid (who had curl-papers in the morning) waved a
flag from the window. Our coachman evidently did not
observe or guess anything. As we drove out of the
town, turning to our right through a wood, we met
many people coming into the town, which the coach-
man said was for a funeral. We passed over the Spey,
by the Bridge of Spey.' Inverallan Established church,
214
GREAT COLONNABE
built in 1803, till 1835 was maintained out of the Royal
Bounty Fund, and was raised to quoad sacra status in
1869. There are also a Free church and a Baptist
chapel, which latter, dating from 1805, was restored in
1882. A public and a female school, with respective
accommodation for 319 and 157 children, had (1881) an
average attendance of 119 and 144, and grants of £112,
13s. 6d. and £105, 6s. Pop. (1841) 814, (1861) 1334,
(1871) 1322, (1881) IZU.—Ord. Sur., sh. 74, 1877.
Grant's House, a hamlet near the western verge of
Coldingham parish, Berwickshire, on the left bank of
Eye Water, 41J mUes ESE of Edinburgh, and 16 NW
of Berwick-upon-Tweed. It has a station on the North
British railway, a post office, with money order, savings'
hank, and railway telegraph departments, and an hotel.
—Ord. Sur., sh. 34, 1864.
GrantuUy Castle, a fine old baronial mansion in
Dull parish, central Perthshire, near the right bank of
the Tay, 2i miles ENE of Aberfeldy, and 2 SW of Gran-
tully station, midway between that town and BalKnluig
Junction. Supposed to have been built in 1560, and
surrounded by noble elm trees, it mainly consists of two
five-storied towers, with walls 9 feet in thickness, and
with additions of 1626 in the shape of gables, pepper-box
tm-rets, and the like. With Traquair, Craigcrook,
Ravelston, and CraighaU-Rattray, it claims to be the
prototype of ' TuUy-Veolan ' in Waverley; and now, for
several years unoccupied, it is left to desolation and
decay. The lands of Grantully were first possessed as
a separate estate towards the close of the 14th century
by Sir John Stewart, Lord of Innermeath and Lorn,
who was third in descent from Sir John Stewart of Bon-
kill and fourth from Alexander, lord high steward of
Scotland. Erected into a free barony by a charter of
1538, renewed in 1623 and 1671, they still are owned
by his lineal descendant. Sir Archibald-Douglas Drum-
mond-Stewart, eighth Bart, since 1683 (b. 1817 ; sue.
1871), who holds 33,274 acres in the shire, valued at
£18,000 per annum. The original castle of 1414 or
thereby, 1 mile to the E, has left some vestiges of its
foundations ; whilst St Mary's church, f mile SSW,
which is known to have existed in 1533, retains its roof
with twelve medallions (1636) painted on wood. This
was the burial place of the Barons of Grantully before
they acquired Mubtly in 1615. Grantully chapel of
ease, ^ mile W by N of the castle, was raised to quoad
sacra status in 1883 ; Grantully inn stands within 200
yards of the station. — Ord. Sur., sh. 55, 1869. See Dr
WiUiam Eraser's Bed Book of Grantully (2 vols. , Edinb. ,
1868).
Grapel. See Gaepel.
Grassmarket. See Edinbtjkgh.
Grassy Walls, a Roman camp, now all but obliterated,
in Scone parish, Perthshire, on the left bank of the Tay,
3| miles N by W of Perth. Oblong in shape, and 535
yards in circumference, it seems to have been formed by
Agricola (83 A.D. ), and by Severus (208) to have been
connected by a road with Stirling to the SW and Battle
Dykes to the NE.— OrtZ. Sur., sh. 48, 1868. See Gen.
William Roy's Military Antiquities of the Romans (Lond.
1793).
Gray House, a mansion in Liff and Benvie parish,
Forfarshire, 5 mUes WNW of Dundee. Built by the
tenth Lord Gray in 1715, it is a turreted edifice in the
Manorial style, and stands in a finely wooded park of
200 acres. An oak, an ash, and a sycamore have a
respective height of 65, 110, and 81 feet, and a girth
of 26i, 181, and 15^ feet at 1 foot from the ground.
With KiNFAUNS Castle, Gray House passed in 1878
to E. A. Stuart-Gray, Esq.— Orci. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.
Graystone, a village in Carmyllie parish, Forfarshire,
7 J mUes W by N of Arbroath, under which it has a post
office.
Greanlin, a village in the Isle of Skye, Inverness-
shire. Its post-town is Eilmuir, under Portree.
Greannoch. See Grennooh.
Great Causeway. See Staffa.
Great Cave. See Gigha.
Great Colonnade. See Staffa.
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