ABERDEEN, _Feb. 20, 1637_.
CI.--_To_ JONET MACCULLOCH.
[No doubt this lady was one of the _Maccullochs_ of _Ardwell_, a residence near Anwoth, next to Cardoness. The Letter, CLXXXIV., to Mr. Thomas Macculloch of _Nether Ardwell_, relates apparently to another of the same house. The house is very pleasantly situated near the mouth of the Fleet. The old mansion-house of Ardwell, or Ardwall, bore the name of "Nether Ardwell;" it occupied a spot about a hundred yards distant from the present mansion, lying towards the shore, a little below where the bay receives the waters of the Fleet. "Higher Ardwell" was towards the north: a farm near Bushy Bield (Rutherford's old manse, which was originally a mansion house) still bears that name. The family of the Maccullochs, who were intimate with Rutherford, still retain the property. They are an ancient family; for William Macculloch got a feu charter of the lands of Nether Ardwell from his cousin, or uncle, Macculloch of Cardoness and Myreton, in 1587. It is the wife of this William Macculloch, in all probability, of whom the following lines speak, on the tomb at the south side of the raised pile in the old churchyard:--
Dumb, senseless statue of a painted stone, What means this boast? Thy captive is but clay. Thou gainest nothing but some lifeless bones; Her choicest part, her soul, triumphs for aye. Then, gazing friends, do not her death deplore; You lose, while she doth gain for evermore.
"Margrat Maklellan, goodwife of Ardwell, departed this life 1620. Ætatis suæ 31."
We may add, the grand-daughter of this lady, to whom the lines on the monument refer, was mother of the martyr, John Bell of Whyteside.]