John Innes, in 1407, and completed after thirteen years' labour. In 1506, the great tower fell in, and was not restored till thirty years after. In the month of February, 1568, the Regent Murray and his council, to raise money for paying the soldiers, issued an order to strip the lead from the roofs of the cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, which was carried into effect; but the vessel freighted with the sacrilegious spoil, intended for the Dutch market, sank, it is said, in the bay of Aberdeen. For some years past, public measures have been adopted for preserving the remains of this splendid monument. Several grants

of money have been also judiciously expended in clearing away the great mass of rubbish, so that a tolerably accurate idea may now be formed of the original form and extent of the building.

The ruins of the Abbey of Pluscardine-another of these splendid relics of the ancient hierarchy-are situated in a vale of the same name, about six miles from Elgin, and which the patriotic earl of Fife has carefully protected from the effects of further dilapidation. The Castle of Spynie, the ancient residence of the bishops of Moray, in the same neighbourhood, is also well deserving of the stranger's attention.

GORDON CASTLE, the subject of the annexed engraving, is proverbially known, par excellence, as the palace of the North: and, certainly, no subject of the British crown was more splendidly lodged than its late noble proprietor, the duke of Gordon. The structure is of light coloured stone, and of extraordinary dimensions, particularly in length. The main body of the building is connected on either side by two straight arcades, each running one hundred and twenty feet clear to the eye, and terminating at two wings of domestic offices, each sixty feet long. The whole front is crowned with battlements. The accessory parts are depressed in beautiful symmetry, and in subordination to the body, which, in turn, is again surmounted by a massive Saxon tower, rising in lofty state behind it-a relic of the ancient castle of the Gordons. The effect of this combination is grand and imposing, and offers the highest proof of the genius by which the architect was enabled to plan, and carry into completion, this gorgeous undertaking.

The plantations and pleasure-grounds by which this princely mansion is surrounded, are beautiful in the extreme, and kept up with minute and unremitting attention. Such an elysium as this, in the midst of a rugged and mountainous country, and on the very site of a former morass, is a creation which speaks loudly in the praise of human enterprise, and the judicious employ

• Mr. Baxter, of Leith, who had the advantage of several excellent suggestions from the duke of Gordon, a man of acknowledged taste and discrimination.