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294 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
three years. Here again the limitation of the term of set implies
that there was no perpetuity of tenure at a fixed rent. Nor is
INIackintosh's a solitary case of the sort. A John ^lackintosh of
the same date got a three years' set of Dunachton, and other
instances of sets for limited periods will be found in this rental in
the parish of Kingussie. It is almost superfluous to remark that
if thei-e were sub-tenants on these lands, their tenure could not
have been better than that of those from whom tlieii* right was
derived. Huntly's own right and that of his sub-feudatories
may, if you please, be held to have been usurped, but if so the
usurpation takes us back to the fifteenth century. The similar
right of the Earl of Ross takes us back to the twelfth century.
A friend has lent me a memorandum on the early tenure of
land in Ross-shire, from which I take the following extract :
" Estates in Ross-shire may be classed with reference to the
origin of the feudal title into two divisions, viz., those which have
been derived from the Farls and from the Bishops of Ross respec-
tively.
" The Earldom of Ross was one of the earliest territorial Earldoms
of Scotland. In its limits it was practically co-extensive
with the present Sheritlclom.
"The Earls, whose family name was Ross, were of Celtic
origin, and were probably chiefs of leading authority in the dis-
trict prior to the creation of the feudal Earldom in the middle of
the twelfth century. After that creation, in accordance with the
plan of the feudal system, the Earl held the whole disti-ict of the
Crown for service of ward and relief, the subordinate chiefs of the
clans, Mackenzies, Munroes, and others, holding in their turn of
the Earl for military service to him. That these rights were
made and transferred by Charters and Sasines in ordinary feudal
form is instructed by various old Charters preserved among
the munimei]ts of the older Ross-shire families.
"The Earldom of i'oss was resigned by John, Lord of the
Isles, into the hand of the Crown, ad perpetunni remnnentiam in
the year 147G. The mid-superiors being thus removed, the subordinate
chiefs came to hold their lands directly from the Crown.
The more important of them afterwards had their Estates erected
into Baronies, and in their turn gave out lands to vassals. The
lands which had belonged in property to the Earls of Ross, were
put under the charge of a Crown Chamljerlain, who periodically
settled accounts of his intromissions in Exchequer.
" Various property-lands of the Earldom of Ross were feued
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