Between the earldom of Atholl and the province of Fife and Fothriff, and separated from the latter by the Firth of Tay, lay the earldom of Gowry. In the account of the seven provinces of Scotland prior to the Scottish conquest, this earldom formed one province along with that of Atholl; but after the Scottish dynasty was seated on the throne it was attached to the province of Fife and Fothriff. It was the heart of the kingdom, as within it was situated the royal seat of Scone, where, as Fordun rightly tells us, ‘both the Scottish and Pictish kings had whilom established the chief seat of government;’ and from an early period it appears to have belonged to the royal family, as Bower makes the curious statement that Alexander the First had received at his baptism, as a donation from his father’s brother the earl of Gowry, the lands of Lyff and Invergowry, where, after he became king, he began to build a palace, and finally conferred them upon the abbey of Scone. These lands are in fact contained in the foundation-charter of Scone by Alexander the First, and that the earldom had been the appanage of Donald Bane, who alone can be meant, is probably true enough.[388] In the reign of Malcolm the Fourth, who confirms the foundation-charter of Alexander the First, we find mention of the four royal manors of Gouerin or Gowry paying _Can_ to the king, and these were Scon or Scone, Cubert or Coupar-Angus, Forgrund or Longforgan and Stratherdel; and these appear to have been likewise royal thanages. Thus Alexander the Second grants to the canons of Scone, in exchange for tithes which they exacted from the lands of Forgrund, one net of his fishings in the thanage of Scone, two acres of land in the territory of Scone where the Canon’s Well is situated, and a perpetual lease of his demesnes of Rath and Kynfaunes in Gowry; and finally King Robert the First grants to the abbot and canons of Scone the whole thanage of Scone, with all its pertinents.[389] Strathardell, too, was a thanage, as we find a charter granted in the reign of William the Lion by Laurence of Abernethy of the church of Abernethy to the monks of Arbroath is witnessed by Macbeth, sheriff of Scon, thane of Strathardel;[390] and though we have no notice of the royal manors of Cupar and Forgrund being termed thanages, it is probable that they were so.