of Strathbogie.” In 1606, he was accused of giving encouragement to the Roman Catholics, and thereby occasioning a great defection from the reformed opinions, and in 1608 he was excommunicated. In 1616, he was absolved from excommunication by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and afterwards by the General Assembly which met at Aberdeen in that year. There is, however, no doubt that during his whole life he was a warm adherent of the ancient religion.’[68] It would be difficult for a candid mind to say which was most to blame in all this--the marquis for his insincerity, or the church-courts for exercising force and accepting professions where they knew that there was no hearty concession attainable. [Sidenote: 1635.] In his latter years, the marquis devoted himself much to what was then called _policy_--that is, building and planting. We have already seen that he erected an elegant mansion at Strathbogie--the now ruinous Huntly Castle. ‘He built a house at Kinkail on the Dee, called the New-house, which standeth amidst three hunting-forests of his own. He built the house of Ruthven in Badenoch twice, [it] being burnt by aventure or negligence of his servants after he had once finished the same. He built a new house in Aboyne; he repaired his house in Elgin; he hath built a house in the Plewlands in Moray; he hath enlarged and decored the house of Bog-Gicht, which he hath parked about; he repaired his house in the old town of Aberdeen.’--_G. H. S._ * * * * * [Sidenote: DEC.]