The iron-smelting works at Abernethy, Strathspey, were commenced in 1732 by the York Buildings Company. This company was formed in 1675 to erect waterworks on the grounds of York House in the Strand, London, and was incorporated in 1691 as "The Governor and Company of Undertakers for raising the Thames water in York Buildings." The operations of the company have been described by Mr David Murray, M.A., F.S.A. Scot., in an able pamphlet entitled "The York Buildings Company: A Chapter in Scotch History." The company raised at the time of its incorporation the then immense capital of £1,259,575, and conducted not only the original waterworks, but also enormous speculations in forfeited estates in Scotland; the company also carried on coal, lead, and iron mines, the manufacture of iron and glass, and extensive dealings in timber from the Strathspey forests. Their agents and workmen in Strathspey are described in the Old Statistical Account as "the most profuse and profligate set that were ever heard of in this country. Their extravagances of every kind ruined themselves and corrupted others." Their ironworks were abandoned at the end of two years, _i.e._ in 1734, or, according to the Old Statistical Account, in 1737. They made "Glengarry" and "Strathdoun" pigs, and had four furnaces for making bar iron. The corporation of the York Buildings Company was dissolved in 1829. The Loch Etive side, or Bonawe, ironworks, were commenced by an Irish company about 1730. They rented the woods of Glenkinglass, and made charcoal, with which they smelted imported iron ore. That company existed till about 1750. In 1753 an English company, consisting of three Lancashire men and one Westmoreland man, took leases, which ran for one hundred and ten years, and these were renewed in 1863 to the then manager of the company for twenty-one years, expiring as lately as 1884. By the courtesy of Mr Hosack, of Oban, I have seen duplicates of the leases under which the undertaking was carried on. The works comprised extensive charcoal burnings and the blast-furnace at Bonawe; they were discontinued before 1884. Other important works of a similar character were afterwards established by the Argyle Furnace Company, and by the Lorn Company, at Inverary.