residence till the summer of 1798, when he came to his title, and left Scotland with his mother to take possession of Newstead Abbey. Through after life, he cherished an affectionate recollection of the scenes with which he had become familiar at this early period, and boasted that he was half a Scot by birth, and bred a whole one. "To meet with an Aberdonian," says Moore, "was at all times a delight to Byron; and when the late Mr. Scott, who was a native of Aberdeen, paid him a visit at Venice in 1819, and was talking of the haunts of his childhood, one of the places he particularly mentioned was Wallace'-nook, a spot where there is a rude statue of the Scottish chief still standing....In his early voyage into Greece, not only the shapes of the mountains, but the kilt and hardy forms of the Albanians- all,' as he says, carried him back to Morven; and, in his last expedition, the dress which he chiefly wore at Cephalonia, was a tartan jacket."* It is no wonder, therefore, that the people of Aberdeen cherish a warm affection for the memory and name of Byron. Bræmar, one of the three divisions forming the district of Mar, is generally rugged and mountainous, but here and there presents many pleasing exceptions, with much picturesque and romantic landscape: it is, nevertheless, a land of "heath," the natural carpet of freedom. The Castle of Bræmar, on the Perth side of the river, is a lofty structure, in the shape of two buildings united at right angles, and surrounded by a wall enclosing a square, with angles protruding from the centre of each side. In a field below this castle, the earl of Mar unfurled the Stewart banner in 1715; an event which involved his own family, and those of many others, in irretrievable ruin. This was long the stronghold of the Mar family; but, after their attainder, was purchased by Farquharson, of Invercauld, the chief of his clan, and let on lease to government as a military station for keeping the Jacobite clans in check. It is now used as a barrack for a company of military, stationed here to aid the excisemen in the discharge of their duties, in these "dew-distilling" mountains. About a mile below the Castle, on the opposite side of the Dee, is the mansion house of Invercauld, surrounded by much of the fine river, mountain, and forest scenery, for which this district is celebrated. New plantations have been laid out with great taste, covering a vast extent of country, and contributing greatly to the picturesque effect of the landscape; while the patriotic exertions of the Chief are faithfully directed to the moral improvement of his numerous tenantry and dependants. The scene is literally such as poets have described it. * It was in this jacket of the clan that he appears in the striking profile taken by the Comte d'Orsay, and prefixed to " Byron's Conversations with the Countess of Blessington" a work in which the character of the noble bard is portrayed with great delicacy and effect. |