The Burying-Ground contains some curious old tomb-stones, but the most remarkable is an effigy in armour, known as "Jock o’ Bucklevie." At the best, this effigy has been a piece of rude work, and it has suffered much from the ravages of time, and the selfishness of the heritors who cast it out of the old church. It has been conjectured that Bucklevie, or Balclevie, was at one time an independent estate, and that the effigy represents one of the lairds. The village of Bucklevie is noticed on page 28, second part.

The Loch, which is a beautiful sheet of water, lying close to the village and church, covers fully 96 acres. It abounds with water-plants of many kinds, and is said to swarm with pike and eel. It has long been a favourite haunt of swans, and its glassy surface is generally dotted with these majestic sailors. In Vedder’s ballad on the Witch o’ Pittenweem, it is said

"They tied her arms behind her back,
An’ twisted them with a pin;
And they dragged her to Kinnoquhar Loch
An’ coupit the limmer in—
An’ the swans flew screamin’ to the hills,
Scared with the unhaly din."

But it will hardly do to reason from such a ballad, as Dr Ferrie has done, that "the loch appears to have had swans in it at that time." It would require to be proved first that the loch was there at that time.

Kiconquhar House is situated about half-a-mile to the north-east of the loch, and is the seat of the Earl of Lindsay. William Ballantine, a former "laird of Kilconquhar," is said to have been drowned while skating on the loch on the 28th of February 1593. It has been attempted to throw a tragic air over the house, by pointing out the stains of Lady Macduff’s blood—shed by the ferocious and tyrannical Macbeth. Wyntoun certainly says that when the Thane fled from the Usurper, he passed,

David Macpherson supposed that this house of defence might perhaps be "Maiden Castle, the ruins of which are on the south side of the present Kennoway. There are some remains of Roman antiquity in the neighbourhood, and it is very probable that Macduff’s castle stood on the site of a Roman castellum." This, of course, is only a supposition of Macpherson’s, and it is possible that Wyntoun may have meant Kilconquhar, and not Kennoway. If he had added the letter "r" to "Kennawchy," it would have been exactly Kennuchir as pronounced in the locality; and so there is at least room for a difference of opinion on this point, although in another book of his Cronykil, Wyntoun spells Kuconquhar—" Kylqwhonqwhare." But whether Macduff’s house was at Kilconquhar or not, the story of the bloodstains must be discarded for two reasons. In the first place, Macduff’s house of defence can only have been a rath of wood or wattles, on the top of a mound, strengthened by stakes and earth-works; and, in the second place, there is no evidence whatever to show that his wife was slain. Fordun does not even refer to her. But Wyntoun says:-

"Till Kennawchy Makbeth come sone, And felny gret thare wald have done, Bot this lady, wyth fayre trette, Hys purpos lettyde done to be."

So far from hinting that the Usurper "savagely slaughtered" the "wife and babes," the narrative of this old chronicler seems to imply that nothing of the kind took place. She prevented his severity, by her fair treaty! A romantic and true story is told about the widow of another laird, to wit,

Adam of Kilconquhar, who married Marjory, the heiress of Carrick, and so became Earl of Carrick in her right. In the Carte Monialium de North-Berwic, there is a resignation of the patronage of the church of Kilconquhar by this Adam, Lord of Kilconquhar and Earl of Carrick, dated the 10th kalend. of March 1266. He went out to Palestine as a crusader, and died at Acre in or about 1270. Two years later, when his young widow was out hunting, a handsome cavalier crossed her path. "When greetings and kisses had been given on each side," says Fordun, "as is the wont of courtiers, she besought him to stay and hunt, and walk about; and seeing that he was rather unwilling to do so, she, by force, so to speak, with her own hand, made him pull up, and brought the knight, although very loath, to her castle of Turnberry with her." In about a fortnight they were married, without consulting friends, well-wishers, or even the King. The latter was so enraged at this breach of feudal decorum, says E. W. Robertson, that he threatened to confiscate the earldom; but was so appeased by the entreaties of their mutual friends that he contented himself with levying a fine on the enamoured delinquents. The eldest son of this love-match was the great Robert the Bruce, who, in due time, became the Earl of Carrick. Wood, in his East Neuk of Fife, says, that the elder Bruce by this marriage became Laird of Kilconquhar. That, however, seems to be a very improbable supposition, though stated by him as a fact.

Balcarres House is situated fully a mile and a half north-west of the loch, and has been a seat of the Lindsays for three centuries, having been acquired, in 1587, by John Lindsay, who six years before had assumed the title of Lord Menmuir on being appointed a Lord of Session. Through the revenues of the rectories of Men-muir Lethnot, and Lochlee having been bestowed on him while a child, he had formerly been known as the Parson of Menmuir. This John Lindsay, who was the second son of the ninth Earl of Crawford, died in 1598, in his mansion of Balcarres, which he had only built in 1595. His death is said to have been one of the "notable effects" of "that maist conspicuus eclipse of the sunne," which six months before "strak all creatours with sic estonishment and feir, as tho the day of Judgment haid bein com." His second wife was "a termagant," and was imprisoned for her violence. His eldest son died three years after himself; but his second son, David, who is said to have had the best library of his time in Scotland, was created Lord Lindsay of Balcarres, by Charles the First, in 1633. David died at Balcarres in 1641, and was buried in the little Gothic chapel which he had built, and which now stands roofless near the road-side. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Alexander, who was such a staunch Covenanter that he sold his plate to pay the expenses of the General Assembly. He took a prominent part in the troublous times in which he lived, and saw many changes. In 1651—eight days after the coronation of Charles the Second—he was created Earl of Balcarres. He died in exile at Breda in 1659, but was buried at Balcarres. By his wife, the beautiful Lady Anna Mackenzie, he had two sons and three daughters. Both sons, Charles and Colin, Succeeded him in the Earldom. His eldest daughter died a nun; and his second daughter, Sophia, was the cool and clever lady who helped her step-father, the ninth Earl of Argyle, to escape from Edinburgh Castle in the disguise of a page bearing her train. Charles, having died when he was only twelve years old, was succeeded by Colin, the third Earl, who was early married to a kinswoman of the Prince of Orange, who had fallen in love with him. Strange to say, he forgot the marriage day, and, after the bridal party had gone to the church, he was discovered in his night-gown and slippers enjoying his breakfast. He hurried to the church forgetting to take the ring with him, but this want was supplied by a friend, who gave him one which, without looking at, he placed on the finger of his bride. Noticing at the end of the ceremony that it was a mourning ring, with a death-head and crossed bones, she declared that she would die within a year, and the prediction was only too true. His life was a very eventful and suffering one, for he had other three wives, and was an incorrigible Jacobite. He lay in a common jail; was confined in Edinburgh Castle, of which his father had been made hereditary governor; endured ten years’ exile; and was confined to Balcarres, with a dragoon to attend him. When imprisoned, the ghost of his friend Claverhouse is said to have visited him the morning he was slain at Killiecrankie. This Colin was a lover of paintings and of books, and he it was who built the village of Colinsburgh. He died in 1722, and was succeeded by Alexander, one of his sons by his fourth marriage. This Earl Alexander, who was a daring soldier, died in 1736; and was succeeded by his brother James, a good sailor, bold soldier, and skilful farmer of turnip renown. Against his own better judgment, James had been prevailed on by his father to join the Pretender, and after the Rebellion was put down, he was hid in Newark Castle, under the leads, where he was fed by one of the Miss Anstruthers. He remained a bachelor until he was 58, when he married a young lady of 22, Miss Anne Dalrymple, whom he had met at the waters of Moffat. They had eight sons and three daughters, the first-born being the famous Lady Anne Lindsay, who wrote, in her twenty-first year, the touching ballad of Auld Robin Gray, to an old tune called "The Bridegroom greets whan the sun gangs doun," and which is now sung to a beautiful English air composed for it by the Rev. William Leeves of Wrington. Robin Gray was an old herd at Balcarres. The gifted authoress, who was married to Mr Barnard, died in 1825, in her 74th year. Her father died at Balcarres in 1768.

He was succeeded in the Earldom by his son Alexander, a gallant soldier and able statesman, who spent his latter years at Haigh Hall, near Wigan, the inheritance of his countess, and he also died in 1825. Although he had four sons and two daughters, he sold the lands of Balcarres, in 1789, to his brother, the Hon. Robert Lindsay, who had made a large fortune in India, and had previously bought Leuchars. Thus the title was separated from the estate. At his death in 1836, Robert Lindsay was succeeded by his son James, a Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and formerly Member of Parliament for Fife, who built the present splendid modern mansion, in which the principal part of the old house was preserved intact. The Colonel was succeeded by his son, Sir Coutts Lindsay, who constructed the beautiful terraces and a new approach. He has just (April 1886) sold the estate to his nephew, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, the Premier Earl on the Union Roll of Scotland; so that, after an interval of almost a century, the title and estate are again united. The present owner’s father, who married his second cousin, Margaret, the eldest sister of Sir Coutts, in 1846, was the eighth Earl of Balcarres and the twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford. He was the author of several valuable works; but is, perhaps, best known by his Lives of the Lindsays, which was published in three volumes in 1849, appropriately "addressed and inscribed to Sir Coutts and Margaret Lindsay," for whose "instruction and amusement" it was first written. The present Earl, who, like his father, is a devoted student, and has an unrivalled private library, is in the meantime engaged on a bibliographical work of great va1ue. [This account of the Balcarres family is mainly drawn from Anderson s Scottish Nation; but the Lives of the Lindsays has also been consulted. The following curious entry occurs in Lamont’s Diary :— "1662, Sept. 6.—Being Saturns day Johne Taite garner in Ba!carresse, his mother, who stayed in Balcarresse was bitten throughe the arme with a puggy ther, which did blood so therafter, tiat it could be stemed, neither by Doctor Mairtain, phesitian, nor by Johne Gourlay, apothecary; within some few dayes thereafter she dyed and was interred at Kilconquer Church, the 13 of Sept."] The name Lindsay, which can be spelt in 88 different ways, means the isle of lime-trees. Wyntoun wisely did not attempt to trace the origin of this noble and ancient family, but cautiously said :—

"Off Ingland come the Lyndysay,
Mare off thame I can nocht say."

The situation of Balcarres is naturally very fine, and art has done much to improve it. The policies are extremely beautiful, the gardens and terraces being unrivalled in Fife. The crag on the east, surmounted by a sham ruin, is a most striking object. Tennant speaks of— "Balcarras-craig, so rough, and hard, and dry."

But its appearance is now quite changed by the trees which adorn its steep and rugged sides. A magnificent view may be had from its summit. During the persecution, John Blackader preached at a conventicle on this crag. There was "a great confluence of people, and many of distinction." His text was the words of Job—" O that I knew where I might find Him," A countryman with a blue bonnet, who had been a notorious sinner, was converted; and Blackader was wont to say that such instances of the power and irresistible grace of God rejoiced his heart, and did him more good than twenty years’ stipend. On the east side of the crag, there is a delightful den fully a mile in length. "The feathered tribes," says Mr Small, "seem proud of pouring forth their various melody in this pleasant retreat, not inferior perhaps to the temple of ancient Thessaly." Botanists and geologists will find additional attractions in it. Sir Walter Scott, who visited the neighbourhood of Balcarres in the summer of 1823, said:- "I never saw so many good houses of people of family and fortune nestled so close together as in that part of Fife."

Reres Castle stood about a mile to the north-west of Balcarres House; but it has entirely disappeared, though historic memories of no common kind were associated with it. In Robertson’s Index to Records of’ Charters mention is made of a charter by which Robert the Third (1390-1406) empowered Sir John de Wemys to build a castle with turrets on his lands of Reres. This is believed to be the

"Schyr Jhone of the Wemys be rycht name,
Ane honest Knycht, and of gude fame,"

who induced Wyntoun to write his Cronykil; but if, as David Macpherson states, Wyntoun’s patron died in 1482, it is somewhat difficult to believe that he could be the same Sir John who built the castle, even though he did die at "an advanced age." This family of Wemyss was descended from the good Macduff; and became the progenitors of the Earls of Wemyss. The castle seems to have been entire in 1793, for Mr Small thus speaks of it:—" The castle of Rires merits particular notice, situated on a high eminence, commanding a most extensive view, and intended, it would appear, for a place of defence; it is surrounded by a ditch 70 feet wide, whose depth cannot now be ascertained with accuracy, by reason of the alterations time has made on the ground: no planting remains about it, excepting one remarkable tree, called ‘the Bicker tree,’ measuring 14 feet round, and its branches extending about 75 feet; that part of the tree where the great branches separate from the trunk, affords a very agreeable seat, and shade in summer; and tradition says that one of the hospitable proprietors, after liberally entertaining his guests in the castle, was wont to conduct them to this tree, and give them an additional bicker there." A field near Reres farm is still known as the castle-park, and the knowe on which the castle was built is still pointed out. There are faint traces, too, of what seems to have been Small’s enormous moat. But not a stone is visible, and the very stump of the bicker tree has also passed into the shades of oblivion. In Robertson’s Index, mention is made of another charter, in the reign of Robert the Third, founding a chapel at Reres; and a tree is still pointed out, which is said to mark the site of the old chapel. Reres, however, came into prominent notice long before the days of Sir John de Wemys. It was in connection with it that the peace was ruptured between Edward and Balliol. Duncan, Earl of Fife, was slain in 1288, and his uncle, Macduff, claimed the lands of Reres and Crey; but the Bishop of St Andrews, who was guardian of the earldom during the minority of Duncan’s son, dispossessed Macduff, whom Wyntoun describes as the lord of Kilconquhar. Fordun avers that the dispute was about the lands of Kilconquhar; but Rymer’s Foedera makes it manifest that this is a mistake. Macduff, failing to get satisfaction from his judges in Scotland, appealed to Edward, who was only too glad "to exercise his new rights of Lord Paramount." Those who wish to study the details of this interesting and important case cannot do better than consult the Annals of Lord Hailes.

Colinsburgh is a village and burgh of barony lying between Balcarres and Kilconquhar. Colin, the third Earl of Balcarres, built it, and it was named after him. It contains an inn, a branch of the Commercial Bank, a post and telegraph office, a U.P. Church, and a gas-work. A weekly market is held on Thursday, and an extensive agricultural show once a year. According to Mr Small, about a third of the parishioners were "sectaries," as he chose to call them. Many of these were so because Small’s predecessor, John Chalmers, was inducted against their will in 1760. Though they immediately took steps to build a meeting-house in Colinsburgh, "they connected themselves with no religious body whatever, but set up a solitary church, resolved in some way or other to maintain their religious independence and privileges." As the neighbouring parish ministers would not baptise their children, without a recommendatory letter from Chalmers, they - applied to Gillespie of Dunfermline, who, however, to avoid the sin of schism, would not dispense ordinances to them until these were distinctly refused by the neighbouring ministers whom they recognised. "They thus became Dissenters by compulsion, and Relief Dissenters by choice." Their first minister, Thomas Colier, was inducted on the 22d of October 1761. On that day, he and Gillespie, and Boston of Jedburgh, with three elders, formed at Colinsburgh for the first time the Presbytery, which afterwards became the Relief Synod. Some interesting facts concerning the origin of the Colinsburgh congregation, and the formation of the first Relief Presbytery, will be found in Struther’s History of the Rise of the Relief Church. A carefully compiled history of the congregation has also been published by the present pastor, the Rev. Robert Dick, who printed the book at his private press. In 1847, as is well known, the Relief Church was amalgamated with the United Secession, and thus formed the U.P. Church. The Colinsburgh congregation is worshipping in its third building, and is enjoying the ministrations of its twelfth pastor. - An old woman, who was born in the parish, and kept a public-house in this village for more than 70 years, died in 1829, aged a century and four months. "She was of a placid, cheerful disposition, was temperate, but said that she had never been particular as to what she ate or drank." The population in 1792, was about 357; in 1841, it was 482; and in 1881, it was 382.

Largoward is a mining village, of fully 300 inhabitants, in the northern part of the parish. Coals were driven from this district to Falkland for the use of James the Sixth. An excellent new pit has recently been opened. A century ago the "black diamonds" were sold here for 2s 2d a cart-load. The quod sacra parish of Largoward embraces portions of Kilconquhar, Largo, Cameron, and Carnbee. The church, which was built as a chapel of ease in 1835, is said to contain 400 sittings.