Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/179

N A I N A K 167 of proprietors was 537, possessing lauds of a gross annual value of 41,767. Of those 467 possessed less than 1 acre, and 5 more than 5000 acres, viz., earl of Cawdor, 46,176 acres; James C. G. Brodie, 22,378; N. J. M Gillivray, 12,600; earl of Leven and Melville, 7805 ; and Hugh Davidson, 6363. There are several fine mansions in the county, in addition to a Bomber of shooting lodges. The coast is skirted by the Highland Railway, and there is a good harbour at Nairn. The county possesses no special trade or manufacture, but there is a large distillery at a short distance from the county town. Xairn includes three entire parishes, Ardclach, Auldearn, and Nairn, and portions of the parishes of Cawdor, Croy, Dyke, Moy, Petty, Daviot, and Urquhart, the last two being detached por tions, lying within Inverness and Ross respectively, at considerable distances from the rest of the county. Since 1801, when it was 8322, the population has been slowly but steadily increasing, and in 1881 numbered 10,455 (4979 males and 5476 females). There is one royal burgh, Nairn, and a burgh of barony, Auldearn. The county is under the same sheriffdom as Elgin and Banff, and unites with Elgin in returning a member to parliament. Anciently Nairn was included under the province of Moray, which was governed by a ri or mormaer. Roman coins have been found at a vitrified fort on the summit of a hill in the parish of Cawdor. There are numerous stone circles, including a very perfect one on the summit of Lethenbar Hill, one at Golford, and one at Moyness consisting of two concentric circles and a rocking stone. Cawdor Castle, a fine baronial structure, in a very picturesque situation, 5 miles south of Nairn, is associated in unauthentic legend with the murder of King Duncan by Macbeth ; but no part of the building is really older than the 1 5th century. NAIRN, a royal and parliamentary burgh and county town, is pleasantly situated near the Moray Firth, on the left bank of the Nairn, and on the Highland Railway, 93 miles west-north-west of Aberdeen and 15 north-east of Inverness. The principal buildings are the town and county hall (1818) surmounted by a spire, the hospital (1846) in the Italian style, the new public hall erected at a cost of 12,000, and the academy. Nairn is much frequented in summer for sea-bathing, and possesses very complete artificial baths. There is a commodious harbour with breakwater and pier. The principal exports are corn, eggs, potatoes, herrings, haddocks, freestone, and timber, and the principal imports coal, lime, and provisions. There are freestone quarries in the neighbourhood, and the town possesses rope and twine factories. There is also a salmon fishery. The burgh unites with Fortrose, Torres, and Inverness in returning a member to parliament. The population of the parliamentary burgh in 1881 was 4161, and that of the royal burgh 4665. The town, whose original name was Invernairn, stood at first at some distance from its present site. Its earliest extant charter, which bears, however, to be a renewal of one received from Alexander I. in the 12th century, was granted by James VI. in 1589. At that time the inhabitants of the western half of the town spoke only Gaelic, and until a late period the distinction between the two sections of the town inhabited by different races was very clearly marked. NAIRNE, CAROLINE OLIPHANT, BARONESS (1766- 1845), the authoress of many fine Scotch songs, was bom in the "auld hoose" of Gask, Perthshire, 16th August 1766. She was descended from an old family which had settled in Perthshire in the 13th century, and which could boast of kinship with the royal race of Scotland. Her father, Laurence Oliphant, was one of the foremost sup porters of the Jacobite cause, and she was named Caroline in memory of Prince Charlie. In early childhood her health was extremely delicate, but a certain refined sensibility was the only trace of this which she retained in after years. In the schoolroom she was known as " pretty Miss Car," and afterwards her striking beauty and pleasing manners earned for her the name of the " Flower of Strathearn." Miss Oliphant was one of the earliest admirers of Robert Burns, and induced her brother Laurence to enter his name as subscriber to the first edition of his poems. It was the attempts of Burns in the Scots Musical Museum to adapt words of a more refined character to the old Scotch airs that suggested to her to undertake a similar enterprise. Her first effort was a new version of the "Pleughman," which her brother introduced at an entertainment to the Gask tenantry, and which soon met with great popularity throughout central Scotland. In June 1800 she married William Murray Nairne, whose rank as fifth Lord Nairne was in abeyance on account of attainder. He was then assistant inspector-general of barracks in Scotland. At the instigation of the Misses Hume, daughters of Baron Hume, she some time after her marriage undertook to bring out a collection of national airs set to appropriate words. To the collection she con tributed a large number of original songs, adopting the signature " B. B. " "Mrs Bogan of Bogan. " The music was edited by R. A. Smith, and the collection was published at Edinburgh under the name of the Scottish Minstrel (6 vols., 1821-24). Her husband was restored to his rank in 1824, but died 9th July 1830. After his death she took up her residence at Enniskerry, county Wicklow, but on account of the delicate health of her only son she went to the Continent, where she spent several years. The son died at Brussels in 1838. Lady Nairne returned to Gask in 1843, and died there 26th October 1845. The songs of Lady Nairne may be classed under three heads : (1) those illustrative of the characters and manners of the old Scotch gentry, such as "The Laird of Cockpcn," "The Fife Laird," and "John Tod"; (2) Jacobite songs, composed for the most part to gratify her kinsman the aged chief of Strowan, among the best- known of which are perhaps "Wha ll be King but Charlie," "Charlie is my Darling," "The Hundred Pipers," "He s owre the Hills," and "Bonnie Charlie snoo awa"; and (3) songs not included under the above heads, ranging over a variety of subjects from "Caller Herrin " to the "Land o the Leal." For vivacity, genuine pathos, and bright wit her songs are surpassed only by those of Burns, and, although their note is less full and strong than his, it is perhaps in some respects more mellow and tender. Lays from Strathearn, by Caroline. Baroness Nairne, arranged tcith Symphonies and Accompaniments for the Pianoforte by Finlay Dun, appeared without date some time after her death. Her poems were published in vol. i. of the Modern Scottish Minstrel, 1857 ; but the most complete collection is that contained in Life and Songs of the Baroness Nairne, icith a Memoir and Poems of Caroline Oliphant the younger, edited by Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., 2d ed., 1869. NAKHICHEVAN, or NAKHJEVAN, a city of Russian Armenia, the chief town of a circle in the government of Erivan, is situated in 39 12 N. lat. and 45 25 E. long., 100 miles south-east of Erivan and 267 miles from Tiflis. It occupies the brow of one of the last spurs of the Karabakh Mountains (Anti-Caucasus), 3015 feet above the sea, and looks out over the wide and beautiful valley of the Araxes. Built and rebuilt again and again, Nakhichevan is full of half -obliterated evidence of former periods of prosperity. The present houses have for the most part been quarried from ancient ruins ; of the palace of the Atabeks of Azerbijan there still remains a gateway with a Persian inscription, flanked by two brick towers ; and at a little distance stands the so-called Tower of the Khans, a richly decorated twelve-sided structure about 102 feet in circumference and 75 feet in height, dating, to judge by the marvellously executed inscription which runs round the cor nice, from the 1 2th century. There are also ruins of a large mosque. Situated on the highroad to Tabriz and Teheran, Nakhichevan is the seat of a considerable transit trade. In the Persian period the city is said to have had 40,000 inhabitants; in 1863 there were only 6251, and in 1873 6877 (2157 Armenians, 4697 Tartars). At the latter date there were 1200 houses, one Russian Greek church, three Armenian churches, four mosques, and two caravanserais. The origin of Nakhichevan (the Naxuana of Ptolemy) is unknown. Armenian tradition claims Noah as its founder, and a mean mound of earth in the city is still visited by many pilgrims as his grave. Laid waste by the Persians in the 4th century, Nakhichevan sank into comparative insignificance, but by the 10th century had recovered its prosperity. In 1064 it was taken by Alp Arslan, and in the 13th century it fell a prey to the followers of Jenghiz Khan. It afterwards suffered frequently during the wars between the Persians, Armenians, and Turks, and it finally passed into Russian possession by the peace of Turkmen-Chai in 1828.