The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

20 The Highland Monthly.
for all their fishings were disposed of by them long agoe
as were their millns, to which last the Town of Inverness
and lands holding of it are thirled, But before and at the
Reformation the Magistrates and Council were (it being
Church lands) the Patrons of Bught, which is equal in the
present case to superiors, as by the Disposition he mentions
will appear, as likewise that these lands are burdened in
the usages, liberties, and privileges, &c., used aud wont to
the Town of Inverness, their vassals and inhabitants. As
to what he says of the regality of Spynie, should it hold,
the Town would have i&w vassals left them, for most of
the Carses of Inverness were of Arbroath, and oyrs of the
lands they are superior of, of different holdings. So this
is a fine motion from their Town Clerk.
"To imagine that this country was all oake 150 years
agoe is thoughtless, ther was as little hereabouts then as
now :
our
woods having been destroyed ages before by
Danes, English, and Intestine war. Besides, it does not at
all appear that ever there was water in the great Canal he
mentions, nor an iron Miln erected, and far less any work
going on there, as there is not the least vestige thereof
Nor any filth or cinders, or dreggs of iron, of which at any
such work there must have been very considerable heapsof
both remaining had they ever wrought at it."
Although Bailie Fraser states that the Town was
" Patron" of Bught before and at the Reformation, the pro-
bability is that the Town claimed and exercised the
superiority over Bught under the general terms of the
Charter of 1591. It is curious that while in the Town's
Charters Bught is described as lying " within the Territory
of the Burgh ;" in the proprietor's titles the lands are, as late
as 1783, when acquired by Mr Duncan Grant, described as
" lying within the regality of Spynie." From what pre-
cedes, it is certain Bught originally, lay neither within the
Territory of the Burgh of Inverness nor the regality of
Spynie.
At this stage it may prove convenient to give a
description of the original Estate of Bught from a Town
Charter in 1692 :
—
" All and whole the lands of Bught with houses,
diggings, yards, parts, pendicles, and universal pertinents