This page contains an edited extract from the following book. You are advised to read the original publication if you are seriously researching the content.
(An 'updated' version appears below.)
Extracts from Raphael Holinshed An
Historicall description of the lland of Britaine The
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland 1587 Of Boene, Anze, Buchquhane, Mar,
Mernis, Fiffe, and Angus, with the
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. . and now an 'updated' version . .(if you disagree with any, please advise!) . .
Extracts from Raphael Holinshed A
Historical description of the land of Britain 1587 Of Boyne, [Anze?],
Buchan, Mar, Mearns, Fife, and Angus with the lochs, The Sixth Chapter. Next into Mar, we have Mearns towards the sea, a very fat (rich?) soil, full of pasture, and abundantly replenished with every sort of cattle. In this portion stands Dunnottar, the Earl Marischal of Scotland's house (Castle), and likewise the town of Fordoun, where the bones of Palladius rest, he who is generally taken as the apostle of our nation. The Water of Esk is bound unto this region, which is otherwise called Northesk, a very dangerous channel, and where many have perished for the lack of a bridge, as they have attempted to pass and re-pass over the same. Angus borders the Mearns, it was at one time part of [Moravia?] Morayshire and now watered with three notable rivers: the Northesk already mentioned, marvellously replenished with salmon, likewise the Southesk, and finally the Tay, the noblest water in all Scotland and remembered by the Roman writers under the name of Tau. In Angus is also a high mountain or promontory called the Red Braes [the coastal cliffs north of Arbroath towards Montrose?] which lies far off unto the [German Ocean) North Sea. The Tay also rises far beyond the Grampian Mountains out of Loch Tay, which is a pool 24 miles long and 10 broad, wherein are not only diverse lands with castles on them, but the water of the lake [loch] itself (being most fine and subtle) is notably replenished with great shoals of fish, and therefore very commodious to those as dwell about it. It falls into the Almain Sea [German Ocean] North Sea before Dundee, a town called in old times Aledun, wherein it was borne, and in which the people very painfully about weaving and making of cloth. There are also many other cities and rich abbeys, as Montrose, Brechin, and Forfar, beside so many castles as are too many to number here. This is likewise is not to be quietly passed over, that whereas Forfar was in times past a notable city, fortified by two royal castles as the ruins do yet declare, now it is little more than a country village, replenished with simple cottagers. Many lochs and pools are also in Angus and those are well fraught with fish. There is also in this countryside one place called the Vale of Esk, whose sheep have such fine, white and excellent wool that the like is hardly to be found elsewhere within the whole land. |
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