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

EDZELL — EEV. GEORGE LOW. 17
Though the discipline of the church was very lax at the
period, and pecuniary donations had vast influence with her, it
cannot possibly be believed, if the character of Wood was fraught
even with a tithe of the ferocity with which the busy tongue of
tradition has enshrouded it, that he either would have been
invested with the responsible office of an elder of the parish, or
been recognised as a witness to the baptism of several children
of families of known respectability. Nor can it be presumed
that the partner of his bosom could for a moment have tolerated
such doings ; for in her — whom, by the way, tradition never so
much as once alludes to — we find, from the importance and
nature of her gifts to " hallie kirke," the beau ideal of a reli-
gious and God-fearing woman ; while the Major's provision for
her after his decease, and his handsome mortification to the poor,
shew a spirit of benignity and charity, as well as of conjugal love
and affection, equal to the holiest of mankind. These malignant
traditions concerning him, may, therefore, as a whole, be safely
set down among those in which truth and fiction are strangely
and unaccountably commingled.*
The old kirkyard of Edzell also contains the ashes of the
parents, and other near relatives of one who, in the midst of
incalculable disadvantages, rose to the highest eminence in the
laborious study of natural history, and could number amongst
his intimate friends no less celebrated men than Sir Joseph
Banks, Dr. Solander, and Mr. Pennant. This was George
Low, afterwards minister of Birsay and Harry, the industrious
author of " Fauna Orcadensis," and " Flora Orcadensis," and
translator of Torfseus' History of Orkney. He was born in
the village of Edzell, in March 1747.f His mother's name was
Coupar, and his father, a small crofter, held the humble ap-
pointment of kirk-officer, and died when George was only
• It appears from the Parish Register of Edzell, that on 15th of January, 1684, Major
James Wood was elected an elder, and on the 5th of January, 1685, he was present at the
baptism of a son of John Lyndsay in Dalbog. In July and August of the same year, his wife
mortified a morteloth to the church, and a table cloth for the communion table ; and on the 6th
of October, 1695, " A band was given in by Mr. John Lindsay, factor to the Laird of Edzell, for
200 hundreth and fiftie marks, mortified to the poore of Edzell, by Major James Wood, only
payable after the decease of Margrat Jackson, his relick, by whom it is presented, and ana
receipt given by the minister and session to the said Margrat Jackson, acknowledging hir right
to the interest yrof for the forsaid soume, during hir lyfetyme, according to the Letter will of
the defunct."
t Erroneously printed 1746 in all biographies. — " 1747, March 29 ; George Low, lawfull
son of John Low, kirk-officer, and Isabel Coupar his spouse, baptized."— Par. Reg. of Edzell.
C