Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Jacobite relics of Scotland > [First series]

280 NOTES.
head : therefore a bard connected with that associated clan may
have written it. I am, however, disposed to think that, by that
single name all the Highlanders are meant. It is a capital old
song, and very popular.
SONa LXI.
3IIamie tl)e ISober,
Is another song in celebration of the Chevalier de St George's
birth-day : and there can be little doubt that it alludes to the
very same festival on which Song XLIX. had been composed, as
that likewise is said to be at Auchindown, on the tenth of June.
This place is likewise mentioned in the old song of The Haughs
of Cromdale, where it is denominated a town; a term quite
improperly applied, save for the rhyme. One is naturally curious
to know where this place, so celebrated in Jacobite song for
its loyalty, is. It is neither more nor less than an old ruinous
castle in Glen-Fiddich, in Banffshire : and it would appear that
these festivals in honour of the exiled sovereign had been among
the last entertainments given there ; for about that very time the
castle ceased to be inhabited, and we hear of the knights of
Auchindown no more. The building is extremely ancient : no
one knows in what age it was built, or by whom. At a very
early period it belonged to the Ogilvies ; but in the year 1535 it
came into possession of the family of Gordon, and of that
name there have been both knights and lords of Auchindown.
It stands on a bold and commanding situation, on the top of a
green mound that overhangs the Fiddich ; and in the central
apartment of the castle there is a piece of curious and admirable
workmanship, in grand and Gothic style.