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This page was updated - 18 April, 2004
xxx GLAMIS CASTLE
ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY CHURCH OF THE PARISH
BY THE REVEREND JOHN STIRTON, C.V.O., D.D., F.S.A.(Scot.)
Senior Minister of Crathie and Chaplain to the King.
Author of "GLAMIS, A PARISH HISTORY", "PASTIME PAPERS", "A DAY THAT IS DEAD", "THE CELTIC CHURCH AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE EAST", "CRATHIE AND BRAEMAR, A HISTORY OF THE UNITED PARISH", "BALMORAL IN FORMER TIMES", "THE SPANISH MATCH", Etc, Etc.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS.
<<BOWES-LYON SHIELD>>
FORFAR: W. SHEPHERD, CASTLE STREET.
1938
=====================================================
<<CROWN>>
Dedicated by Special Permission to Her Majesty the Queen.
FOREWORD.
The writer, having acquired new material supplementary to his "History of the Parish, Castle, and Church of Glamis", has endeavoured to arrange the historical data at his disposal in such a manner as to give a brief and yet connected account as far as it was possible, of a subject which must appeal to all lovers of their nation's Past.
In compiling a work of this kind, it is necessary to respect and to possess those qualities of a "literary and historical conscience," which the choleric Sir Arthur Wardour dreaded and despised in his friend the laird of Monkbarns, as "a pettifogging intimacy with dates, names, and trifling matters of fact, and a tiresome and frivolous accuracy of memory."
In Glamis, the Past overshadows the Present. The memories of a thousand years darken and obscure the forward progressive tendencies, which nevertheless exist, and are as aggressively active as they are in any rural district; only it is more difficult to see them in their just and proper proportions. The whole atmosphere seems to breathe so unmistakably of the Past. The village, quaint and severe, characteristically Scottish in general appearance - many houses dating from the middle of the eighteenth century and older, the Kirk, the Castle, even the distant line of hills, so suggestive of the Everlasting, all speak of an order of things long since established, and apart from that of a Present with which it would seem to have little sympathy. Here the crowded memories, hallowed by Time, seem to acquire a renewed sanctity as years roll on. We linger fondly over them, "Strong Tradition binding fast with bands of gold." What the next phase may be who can foretell? One thing only lasts and has always been, the charm of natural beauty that rests on the hills and woods of Glamis, and on the wide stretching Strath they look out upon, and on the quiet stream, which like a silver ribbon glances in the sunlight through the willows on its banks, till it becomes one of the great rivers that lose themselves in the tides of the mighty deep.
The writer is especially grateful to the Queen for graciously permitting the work to be dedicated to Her Majesty, and to the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and the Lady Maud Bowes-Lyon for the photographs which they so kindly presented for reproduction in the volume.
In compiling the History of St. Fergus, which appears in the second part of the work, the writer was deeply indebted to the Rev. A. B. Scott, D.D., Helmsdale, who rendered him help readily and un-grudgingly, and made information available which otherwise he would have been unable to acquire.
The writer's thanks are also due to the following helpers, whose assistance he gratefully acknowledges: - The late Duke of Devonshire, for leave to reproduce the portraits of King James V. and Mary of Lorraine; Miss Ralston, Glamis House, who kindly lent a photograph for reproduction; Messrs. Lafayette Ltd., Glasgow, who granted permission to reproduce the photographs of the Queen and the Honourable David Bowes-Lyon, of which they have the copyright; Mr. Paul Laib, South Kensington, London, who gave the writer leave to reproduce the photographs of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore; Messrs. Valentine & Sons Ltd., Art Publishers, Dundee, for the use of colour blocks of the Main Doorway, Glamis Castle, of the South Gateway, and of the Autumn Garden; Messrs. Alexander Maclehose & Co., Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1, for the loan of the block of the photograph of Glamis Castle by the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, reproduced from Sir John Stirling-Maxwell's volume "Shrines and Homes of Scotland"; Laing's Studios, East High Street, Forfar, for allowing the photographs of the Drawing-Room, Glamis Castle, and the North Gateway to be reproduced; Mr. J. N. Strachan, Forfar, for the use of the photograph of the Well of St. Fergus; The Society of Antiquaries for lending the blocks of the Glamis Manse Stone; and Mrs. Stirton for the sketch of the Dutch Garden and the drawings of Restenneth.
Colinton, June 1938.
CONTENTS.
I - Glamis Castle, -17-
Legend of its origin; Oldest portion of present Castle dating from fifteenth century; Occupied by James V. and Mary of Lorraine; Visit of Queen Mary in 1562; Castle remodelled by Patrick, ninth Lord Glamis; Scheme of renovation continued by Earl John; Earl Patrick; Restoration, 1670-1689; Visit of Prince James, Chevalier de St. George in 1716; Castle described by an anonymous writer in 1723; Scene at Castle in 1728 after the death of Earl Charles; Duke of Cumberland's visit in 1746; The Poet Gray's description of the Castle in 1765; Captain Grose at Glamis; Sir Walter Scott spends a night at Glamis Castle in 1793; His description and impressions; Alterations on the Castle; The Secret Chamber; Legend regarding it; The mystery never revealed; General description of the Castle at the present day; The Autumn Garden made by Earl Claude; Evolved and designed by Countess Cecilia; Laid out by Glamis workmen; The work begun in 1907 and completed in 1910; Carried out entirely by residents in Glamis; Garden laid out by Thomas Wilson, head gardener, assisted by David Waterston, Clerk of Works.
II - The Early Church of Glamis, -81-
Celtic Period; St. Fergus; Connection with Restenneth; William the Lion granted Church to the Abbey of Arbroath in 1178; A Vicarage in Diocese of St. Andrews; Church dedicated in 1242 by Bishop David of St. Andrews to St. Fergus, the patron saint; Isabella Ogilvy wife of Patrick, First Lord Glamis, "built the ille in the Kirk of Glamis" after the death of her husband in 1459; On 12th October 1487, John, Third Lord Glamis, granted a mortification of an annual rent of twelve merks, to the altar of St. Thomas, Martyr in the Parish Church; In 1492, the same Lord mortified to the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, in the Parish Church, two acres and a toft of land in the barony of 'Glammiss' for the benefit of the soul of Elizabeth Scrymgeour, his wife; John, Seventh Lord 'Glammis', purchased the whole teinds from Cardinal Beaton, Commendator of Arbroath; Robert Boyd, first minister after the Reformation; His successors; Earl Patrick's improvements; Church seated with pews, 1695; Mr John Balvaird; Jacobite Rising; Rev. Dr. James Lyon; Mrs.Lyon; The old Church demolished and the new one built in 1792.
III - Appendices, -139-
I - Notes on Easter-Denoon.
II-Drumgley.
III - Touch-Piece of the Chevalier de St. George.
IV - Further Note on Queen Mary's Watch.
V - King James and Glamis Castle.
VI-The "Place of Glammiss (Glamis Castle) in the Jacobite Rising.
List of Subcribers, -173-
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Glamis Castle, Frontispiece
ON, OR FACING, PAGE
The Crypt, 18
Mary, Queen of Scots, 20
King James V. and Queen Mary of Lorraine, 22
Patrick, 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, 24
Helen, Countess of Strathmore, 26
Glamis Castle in 1686 (1), 28
Glamis Castle in 1686 (2), 28
The North Gateway, 30
The Touch-Piece of Chevalier de St. George, 32
Glamis Castle in 1730, 34
Glamis Castle in 1790, 34
The Main Doorway, 36
The Lion of Glamis, 38
The Great Hall, 40
The Drawing-Room, 42
The Queen in the year 1909, 44
The Queen and the Honourable David Bowes-Lyon in 1909, 46
Sword of Prince James, 48
Claverhouse's Coat, 48
The South Gateway, 54
The Earl of Strathmore, G.C.V.O., 58
The Countess of Strathmore, G.C.V.O., 60
John Graham of Claverhouse, 62
Patrick, ninth Lord Glamis, 64
George Boswell, 64
The Chapel, 66
Plan of Glamis Castle, 70
The Great Sun-Dial, 70
The Autumn Garden (1), 72
The Dutch Garden, 75
The Autumn Garden (2), 76
The Well of St. Fergus, 84
The Manse Stone (obverse), 90
The Manse Stone (reverse), 91
South Doorway of Tower of Restenneth, 97
Archway in East Wall of Tower, 98
The Chantry Chapel, 104
The Sacrament House, 104
Old Communion Cup, 136
The 'Poores' Box, 136
<<Digital graphic files of the illustrations are available.>>
GLAMIS CASTLE
"This Castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses."
Shakespeare.
T
HERE is probably no Castle in Scotland more historically interesting than that of Glamis. A weird fascination seems to encircle the old battlements and towers, and the lover of ancient landmarks experiences a thrill of pleasure as he approaches the precincts of this lordly domain, and finds to his delight that it is not only entire, but in splendid order and condition. Originally there were four Castles in the parish: - Denoon, Cossins, Glen Ogilvy, and Glamis. No vestiges, however, of the first three remain. Glamis alone is left to tell the tale of other days.
A legend frequently heard in the parish is to the effect that the "Fiery Pans " or summit of Hunter's Hill1, so called from its being the place where beacon fires were lighted, was the site upon which it was
1. The early Kings used to engage in the pleasures of hunting on this hill. At the foot of it there is a fine spring of water still called the King's Well."
17
intended the Castle should be built. The builders set to work, but whatever progress was made during the day in the task of construction it was rudely retarded by night. Certain "little folks," the legend held, were responsible for this action, until a sign came to the builders to guide them. A voice was heard proclaiming, "Build the Castle in a bog where 'twill neither shak nor shog." So the Castle was erected forthwith upon its present site. Needless to say, no written confirmation of the legend exists, but it is known for certain that there was a royal residence at Glamis from a very remote period - a Castle "whose birth, tradition notes not." From the eleventh to the fourteenth century the King and Court from time to time lived there. A Castle there must of course have been, but it probably was one of earthwork with timber erection inside as castles were not built of stone in Scotland until the thirteenth century, and those that date from that period such as Kincardine, Kildrummie, Bothwell, Kinclaven, Castle Roy, Inverlochy, were so fine and elaborate, that had Glamis been of the same date, some remains of it would likely have been left, as such castles were not easily cast aside. There may have been several towers or peel-houses in succession upon the same site, and the probability is that such had indeed been the case.
The oldest portion of the present Castle - the crypt and lower part of the great central tower - is pronounced by experts to date from the fifteenth century. In a manuscript of the year 1631 it is stated that the first Lady Glamis, "in her widdow-
18
-head finished the old house of Glams."1 The Lord Glamis, her husband, died in 1459, and she herself in 1484, so the natural inference is that the Castle had been built partly in the early years of the fifteenth century, and completed in the latter, and that the ancient part of the present building is a remnant of the Castle completed by Lady Glamis. Although no description of it as it then, and for the next hundred years, appeared, is extant, it may well he supposed to have been as commodious and imposing as the times required, especially when the fact is taken into consideration that a monarch and his retinue lived there very frequently for some years. King James V., with his Queen, Mary of Lorraine, their two sons2 and court, occupied it during the forfeiture of the Lyon family. He retained the Castle and Barony of Glamis with some other portions of the estates in his own possession.
1. Lady Glamis also built the aisle at the Church of Glamis, now called the Mortuary or Chantry Chapel, beneath which is situated the burial vault of the Strathmore family. This aisle is of beautiful fifteenth century Gothic, and contains the altar-shaped tomb of the first Lord Glamis, who died, as mentioned above, in 1459.
For the House of Strathmore this Chapel has a thousand sacred memories, and it must be guarded and preserved with jealous care. The vault contains all that is mortal of the Great Chancellor of Scotland, the "Guid, learned nobleman," who was so cruelly done to death in the prime of his life and work in the streets of Stirling in 1577 of that young Earl, "the very flower of Jacobite chivalry," who gave his soul to God on the bloody field of Sheriffmuir in 1715 and of that noble Earl, the " Beau-Ideal of manly beauty," who died in 1776, whom a contemporary described as "In person extremely elegant and in manner most graceful; affable, without meanness, noble, without haughtiness; a zealous friend and most affectionate parent." To his ability as a scholar the great Lord Chesterfield and the poet Gray have given testimony.
2. They both died in infancy. Their sister, born later, in 1547, was Mary, afterwards Queen of Scotland.
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He held a full court at Glamis from 1538 to 1542, and there are many entries in the Lord Treasurer's accounts for sums disbursed for its maintenance. He did not scruple even to lay hands on the personal valuables of the family. In the Exchequer Rolls there is a notice of the twelve great silver flagons in the Castle, each of seven pounds weight, being melted down to supply silver for the mint1. Certainly in his treatment of the noble family of Lyon, the "King of the Commons" would seem to have lost his customary sense of justice and fair-play, not to speak of his "bonhomie" and kindness of heart. During his stay at Glamis many royal documents and charters were dated from the Castle2. He was at Glamis in the "Feast of St. Andrew" 1538, in January and September 1539, in the autumn and winter of 1540, in the autumn of 1541, and in the spring of 1542. The struggle with the "auld enemy" England, however, prevented his return. He died after the disastrous rout of Solway Moss, at Falkland
1. The expenses also appear of hawks, dogs, horses, and their attendants, and payments to surgeons, bards, shepherds, fishermen, and gardeners, for even four centuries ago the gardens of Glamis were famous." (see "Scots Peerage")
2. King James stayed at Glamis Castle on 22nd September, 16th and 20th October, and 17th to 20th December 1537 (Liber Emptorum, fols. 21, 35, and 36). The expense of his visit in September and October was £43,8s. 1d. over and above 54 capons, 90 poultry, and 24 geese of the Kain of Glamis. He spent St. Andrew's Day at Glamis in 1538, for the Exchequer Rolls (XVII., p.256) contains a note of fodder supplied for his horses (ad pabulum equorurn domini regis residentis upud Glammys circa festum Andree). He was back again in September of the following year 1539, and also in the same month of 1540 (Treasurer's Accounts, VII., pp. 201-262) and between September 1540 and March 1541. Evidently the Queen (Mary of Lorraine) and he were constantly at Glamis during 1540-41. The Register of the Great Seal shows that charters were granted at Glamis, on 15th September, by the King, and 14th October 1540, 26th October 1541, 11th and 26th February 1541-1542; and the Register of the Privy Seal shows that on 22nd October 1537, 11th March 1537-38, 28th November 1538, 15th and 24th September and 14th October 1540, 3rd and 26th October, 10th and 18th December 1541, 9th, 10th, 11th, 16th, and 26th February 1541-42, Writs passed under that Seal at Glamis Castle.
When residing at Glamis Castle, King James V., as was his custom, frequently paid visits in disguise to Kirriemuir and the neighbourhood, mingling with the townspeople freely, and so earning the title abovementioned and so often applied to him of "King of the Commons." If tradition be true, he had several adventures, and hairbreadth escapes too, similar to the well-known one recorded of him at Cramond Brig, near Edinburgh, when he was rescued by John Howieson of Braehead.
20/21
Palace, on 14th December 1542. His daughter, the beautiful and ill-starred Mary, Queen of Scots, rested at Glamis when on her well-known progress to the northern counties to quell Huntly's rebellion in 1562. The weather was "extreame fowle and colde," and the roads had been very difficult and well nigh impassable, yet, says Randolph, who accompanied her, "I never saw her merrier, never dismayed," and she exclaimed to him that she longed to be a man "to lie all night in the fields, or to walk upon the causeway with a pack or knapschall (head-piece), a Glasgow buckler, and a broadsword."
The courtiers in the Queen's train included the Four Maries and the Queen's half-brother, James Stewart, whom the Queen created Earl of Moray. The Royal party dined and slept at Glamis Castle, and the Royal menu, in manuscript, written by the Queen's French secretary, is still in existence. Several Royal documents under the Privy Seal as well as private letters were issued from Glamis Castle during the Queen's stay1.
1. See " The Despences de la Maison Royale," written by the Queen's French Secretary. The entries are as follows:-" Samedy XXIIme. jour a' aoust mil VcLXIJ. la Royne et partie de son train disner a Coupres et coucher a Glames." "DymancheXXIJJme jour d'aoust mil VcLX1J. la Royne et partie de son train disner a Glames soupper et coucher a Guelles" (Edzell). In the "Calendar of Scottish Papers, it is stated that the Queen was accompanied by "the whole nobility," including her half-brother Lord James Stewart, and her four Maries were in attendance. The English Ambassador also was of the party. On this occasion, Queen Mary presented to the Lady Margaret Lyon, daughter of the Seventh Lord Glamis and sister of the Eighth Lord, who became Chancellor of Scotland and who was Queen Mary's host, a watch in a gold case, ornamented with filigree, and having the maker's name - Etienne Hubert of Rouen. It was brought from France by Queen Mary. Lady Margaret Lyon married, first Lord Cassilis and secondly the - Marquess of Hamilton. This watch was preserved in the Hamilton family until the Duchess of Hamilton, wife of William, second Duke, great-grandson of the Marchioness gave it to her daughter, Lady Margaret Hamilton, on her marriage with William Blair. It remained in the possession of the Blairs until the marriage of Janet Blair with Mr. Tait, Clerk of Session, in Edinburgh. It was given by her to her niece, Catherine Sinclair of Murkle, from whom it was obtained and given to Rev. John Hamilton Gray by his relative Mrs. Maddrop of Dalmarnock.
21/22
The Castle as it stood in the time of Mary consisted of a main central building or keep, with a wall of enceinte provided with towers and out-buildings. The main Castle, which still exists, is on the familiar 'L' plan, the principal block measuring seventy-one feet by thirty-eight feet, and the wing twenty-nine feet six inches by twenty-one feet over the walls, which are fifteen feet thick and were four stories high, of which three at least were vaulted. Round the top of the walls there was a corbelled parapet, some of the corbels still showing in the heightened west gable. Extending from this keep southwards were the walls of enceinte; outside was a moat with mounds and ditches which may still be partly traced1.
1. Castellated and Domestic Architecture in Scotland," by MacGibbon and Ross.
22
The keep was remodelled and greatly altered, however, by Patrick, the ninth Lord Glamis, afterwards first Earl of Kinghorne, about 1600 A.D. Above the window of the banqueting hall, and on various parts of the heightened walls, his monogram and that of his wife, Dame Anna Murray, daughter of the first Earl of Tullibardine, may be seen1. It was he, who, between the years 1600 and 1606, erected the newelled stair of 143 steps that is carried up the interior of the tower and gives access to the different flats. The banqueting hall was begun by him, and the slappings for the inserted large windows may still be seen. A good deal of controversy has arisen as to who was the designer of the great staircase and the hall. A tradition in the family holds that when Patrick, first Earl of Kinghorne, was in London, attending the court of King James VI., he employed Inigo Jones to make plans for the restoration. There is no written evidence in the Castle to show who was the architect, but it is certainly not improbable that Inigo Jones designed the improvements, as he lived until 1652.
King James VI. had frequently visited Glamis Castle in former days and had taken an intimate interest in the Earl, when young, and the Countess Anna. Indeed he arranged the marriage and ordered
1. In the collection of family relics at Blair Castle, Perthshire, belonging to the Duke of Atholl, there is an ivory spade which was a gift from Lord Glamis to his wife Dame Anna Murray. It bears the following inscription: - "Patricke Lyone Boweres, Captain of ye Guarde of Honoure of his Majestie James ye VI. of Scotlande, who dide give unto Anne, ye beloved daughtere of John Morreye of Tullibardine, in ye yeare of our Lord MDXCIV. (1594), this ivory hoe, which dide come from ye King of Cande, a land verry far off."
23
the ceremony to take place at Linlithgow Palace, where it was solemnised "with greit triomphe," the King and Queen being present.
The second Earl of Kinghorne, son of the last named Earl, continued the scheme of remodelling in which his father had taken so keen and active an interest, and the ceiling of the banqueting hall, of beautiful plaster work, bears his monogram and that of his Countess, with the date 16211. It is somewhat surprising that both Lord Kinghorne and his father had attempted the remodelling of the Castle at such a time of national unrest, when their hands were full already, and when other interests and demands of a more pressing nature forced themselves upon their attention. They had both to raise money for "the exigencies of war, by borrowing upon the security of their real estate, and every available piece of ground, even to the very Mains of Glamis, was mortgaged or pledged in some form to numerous creditors throughout the land,"2 and yet, at the same time, they were busily engaged in effecting changes upon the structure of their ancestral home. The strength of character which they had inherited from the Chancellor and the old Tutor of Glamis prevented their allowing public duties to interfere with private needs and necessities. Only it was hard for their successor. The young Earl Patrick, the son of the second Earl, came into his inheritance when only four years old, and during his long minority the state of affairs, owing to various unfortunate circumstances, as the exactions of Cromwell and the extor-
1. Earl John also built "Barns and outhouses " at the Castle.
2. "Glamis Book of Record," p.xiv.
24
-tions of the Earl's step-father, Lord Linlithgow, did not improve, as might have been expected, but seemed to become worse. In 1653 a detachment of soldiers belonging to the Commonwealth was for a time located in and about the Castle; on which occasion the Forfar bakers had to provide the soldiers with "fower dussen of wheate breade" daily, and the butchers "beefe, mutton, or lambe each Monday and Wednesday," under pain of the same being forcibly exacted. It may readily be believed that the "Inglish garisone" would not be inclined to treat their temporary lodging with the respect and consideration that it deserved. They worked havoc and destruction, and left the place in a much more dilapidated condition than they had found it. The effect of their depredations was felt for a considerable time afterwards, and the feeling of resentment left behind them long survived.
When Earl Patrick and Countess Helen came to Glamis in 1670, the Castle was practically empty, and with no furniture and furnishing. The little that had been left in it previously they had caused to be removed to Castle Lyon, their other residence near Longforgan, which they had made their home from the time of their marriage. Having done everything that was possible in the way of improvement at Castle Lyon, they now turned their thoughts and steps to "Glammiss" the ancient seat of the family. They found the place in a sad state of neglect. The task before Earl Patrick, not merely of liquidating the debt upon the property which his father had incurred, but of renovating the Castle and improving
25
the policies1 in a manner worthy of the high traditions associated with them, was truly a stupendous one-one indeed calculated to daunt the bravest spirit, and to check the most buoyant enthusiasm. How he achieved success in this respect is recorded in his diary already referred to. Difficulties that seemed insurmountable disappeared before him. With unwearied patience and dogged determination
1. "Tho it be an old house and consequentlie was the more difficult to reduce the place to any uniformity, yet I did covet extremely to order my building so as the frontispiece might have a resemblance on both sydes, and my great hall haveing no following was also a great inducement to me for reering up that quarter upon the west syde wch now is, so having first founded it, I built my walls according to my draught and form'd my entrie wch I behooved to draw a little about from the west, else it had run directly thorrow the great victual house att the barns wch my father built, and I was verie loath to destroy it: verie few will discover the throw in my entrie wch I made as unsensible as possible I could. Others more observing have challenged me for it but were satisfied when I told them the cause, others perhaps more reserved take notice of it and doe not tell me, and conclude it to be an error of ignorance, but they are mistaken.
"There be now an entrie from the four severall airths and my house invyroned with a regular planting, the ground on both sydes being of a like bigness, and the figure the same with a way upon either syd of the utter court to the back court where the offices are att the north gate; the gardener's house is upon the on side and the washing and bleatching house on the other, with a fair green lyin thereto to bleatch upon, and a walk there is planted wch goes round the whole intake, wherein when you are walking you'll behold the water running in both syds of the planting. And upon the west syd where the river is to make the way accessible from the west, I have built a bridge and have cast down a little hill of sand wch I caused carrie to such places as were weat and marish. The utter court is a spacious green, and forenent the middle thereof is the principle entrie to the south with a gate and a gate house besyde two rounds on upon each corner, the on appointed for a Dayrie house and the other for a Still house, and the gate house consists of on roume to the gardine and another to the bouling green, the walls are lined, the roof plaistered, the floor lay'd with black and are whyte stone, and verie convenient and refreshful roumes to goe in to from the gardine and bouling green." -
(Diary of Earl Patrick).
26
he followed the line he had drawn out for himself, until eventually he had made Glamis a seat, not only worthy of his name and family, but splendid in its attractiveness, and lordly in its dignity. In his great undertaking he most thoughtfully and tactfully enlisted the services of local craftsmen, as far as he found it possible, the finer work being committed to the hands of certain foreign workmen. Andrew Wright, the local joiner, and John Walker, the smith, who made the beautiful wrought iron railing at the top of the central tower, a copy now of which exists, also the masons of Glamis were all employed, and received very reasonable remuneration for their labour. A Dutch artist, Jacob de Wet, and a carver named Jan Van Santvoorti1 were engaged to do the painting and carving. Earl Patrick built the west wing of the Castle, and put a new roof on the east one. He raised the central tower and adorned the garden with a fine dial and statues. He built the walls round the Castle, planted many trees, erected a number of gateways and many necessary domestic
1. Jacob de Wet and Jan Van Santvoort were both Dutchmen who had come to this country for the purpose of executing work at Holyrood Palace. There is no record to show what was the exact nature of the work Santvoort was commissioned to execute at Glamis, but in all probability he made the carved chimney pieces, a number of the picture frames, the stone carving of the Royal Arms, and the bust of Patrick, first Earl of Kinghorne, which stands in the niche over the main doorway. The sum of £394 was paid to Santvoort in 1684. When so large a sum was paid to him, it is likely he had also carved the gladiators, lions, and satyrs on the gateways. De Wet and Santvoort both came to this country in 1674. The work at Holyrood was completed in 1686. Lord Strathmore made a contract with De Wet on 18th January 1688, employing him to make a number of paintings in the Castle. De Wet proved to be slippery in his dealings, and a law plea ensued - See "Glamis Book of Record," Introduction, p.xli.
27
buildings, furnished and decorated the rooms, built the chapel, and commissioned De Wet to paint the panels from the designs in an old bible in the Castle. These and many other improvements and additions, too numerous to mention, he effected, and there are many quaint notices of them in his diary, and of the contracts and agreements which he made with the different workmen. The work of restoration continued from 1671 to 1689. The Castle as completed by him then was one of the finest in the country. A good idea of its appearance may be formed from the picture of it in the present drawing-room, in which the Earl is seen surrounded by his family, and pointing to his finished work. An engraving of the Castle, a "Design in Talyduce," was executed about this time by John Slezer, the draughtsman of the "Theatrum Scotiae." He was a Dutchman who came to Scotland in 1669, and in consequence of his skill he attracted the notice of several of the Scottish nobility. He was made a Burgess of Dundee on 19th April 1678, and when in the neighbourhood he visited Glamis, and became acquainted with Earl Patrick. His lordship asked him to make a sketch of the Castle, which Slezer agreed to do, and his intention was to include it in his "Theatrum Scotiae" before mentioned. "1 have indeed," says to Lord Strathmore, "been att the charge to imploy one who is to make a book of the figure of the draughts and frontispiece in Talyduce (etching on copper), of all the King's castles, pallaces, towns, and other notable places in the Kingdome belonging to privat subjects, who's desyre it was att first to me,
28
and who himsellfe, passing by, deemed this place worthie of the taking notice of. And to this man (Mr.Sletcher by name) I gave liberall money, because I was loath that he should doe it att his own charge, and that I knew the cuts and ingraving would stand him mony." 1,
An engraving entitled "Glams House," appeared in the collection which was published in 1693, and a number of reprints of it have been made from time to time. The building depicted, however, bears no resemblance whatever to Glamis Castle as described by Earl Patrick. Doubts were therefore felt whether the engraving represented Glamis or some other building. These doubts have now been confirmed by many authorities, who pronounce the engraving to represent Dalkeith Castle. In the preparation of his work Slezer must have made some confusion of names, and the original drawing of Glamis had probably been lost. A few experts, however, while admitting that it does not represent Glamis as Slezer saw it, suggest that the drawing might be a copy of an older one, or else an attempt to represent what existed before the time of Patrick, ninth Lord Glamis, who was in possession from 1578 to 1615, and who gave to Glamis its existing characteristics. There is an old engraving, however, still preserved in the Castle, which conveys a good idea of the appearance of the Castle at the time, although the walls and surroundings are not included in the picture. It bears this inscription: - "The frontispiece of the Castle of Glamis, given by King Robert,
1. "Glamis Book of Record."
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the first of the Stewarts, in 1376, with his daughter, to John Lyon, Lord Glamis, Chancellor of Scotland, as it is now reformed by Patrick, Earl of Strathmore, his lineall heir and successor. Ano. Dom. 1686, R. White, sculptor." This view is taken in violent or forced perspective, and the courts and walls in front are consequently not visible. The "R. White" who signs the drawing, was employed by Captain Slezer to engrave certain of the plates in his "Theatrum Scotiae."
Structurally, the Castle remained a good deal the same for the next hundred years. It was the scene of great sorrow and lamentation in 1715, when the news came that the young Earl had laid down his life in the cause of the Stewarts on the field of Sheriffmuir1. Deserted by his men he had seized the colours, and, with fourteen others as brave, held his own till he was struck by a musket shot, and sabred by a dragoon. In 1716 its old walls and lofty towers resounded with the clash of arms and the plaudits of multitudes, when the Prince James, son of King James VII., and known as "the Chevalier de St. George" arrived, accompanied by the Earl of Mar and a retinue of gentlemen, and passed a night in the ancient seat of kings. No wonder the prince said it was one of the finest palaces he had seen. Although distinctively Scottish in its design, yet there were
1. Rev. John Balvaird, the Younger, acted as the Chaplain to the Earl of Strathmore. Elizabeth, the Widowed Countess of Strathmore, wrote in her Household Book, still preserved at the Castle, the to pathetic entries: "I sent my Chaplain, Mr. Balvaird, to see my son (the Earl who was killed at Sheriffmuir)," and later I sent to . . . . . for my son's equipment, and again, "I paid for my son's coffin and the journey of his body to Glamis."
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striking features about it which showed the French influence, notably the clustering turrets, so that at first sight it resembled a French chateau. The bed on which the prince slept used to be shown at the Castle, also his sword,1 and the silver watch2 which he left beneath his pillow. When at Glamis, the Chevalier was entertained by the new Earl of Strathmore, a young delightful boy of sixteen. His brother's minority had saved the succession from forfeiture.
The Chevalier "touched" for the "King's Evil"3 in the Chapel at Glamis Castle, and it was said "all the patients recovered." Describing the Chevalier to his friend Hearne afterwards, the young, Earl said: "He was a very cheerful fine young gentleman and a lover of dancing; also of great and uncommon understanding, punctual to his word, very religious, modest, and chaste."
1. The sword bears the following inscription: "God save King James VIII, prosperitie to Scotland and No Union." Father Lewis Innes, Principal of the Scots College, Paris, who formerly had been almoner to the Chevalier's mother, Queen Mary of Modena, accompanied the Prince as confessor and private chaplain. Historians relate that the Prince strictly banished all religious service by Protestants from his household, which resounded with the paternosters and aves of his confessor, Father Innes, while even the protestant bishops, whom he had created himself, were not allowed to say so much as a grace. The identical missal or Book of Devotions, used by Father Innes when officiating before the Chevalier and his court, during their visits to Kinnaird, Glamis, and Scone, is now in the possession of the author.
2. The watch was appropriated by a maid-servant, as a perquisite, but was restored to the family by her great-granddaughter.
3. One of the silver touch-pieces given by the Chevalier to the patients is in possession of the writer. On the Obverse, St. Michael and the Dragon are displayed and the inscription - Soli Deo Gloria. On the Reverse, there is a three-masted ship, in full sail, with surrounding inscriptions - Jaco-III.-DGMB-FR et Hi-Rex. All the Stuart sovereigns "touched" for the King's evil.
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No less than eighty eight beds were occupied by the officers and gentlemen in his train.
An anonymous writer supposed to be Defoe in a "Tour through Great Britain," in 1723, describes the Castle as it then appeared. He says: "It was one of the finest old built palaces in Scotland, and by far the largest, that when seen at a distance the piles of turrets and lofty buildings, spires and towers, made it look like a town. The palace as you approach it strikes you with awe and admiration by the many gilded balustrades at the top. The outer court has a statue on each side on the top of the gate as big as life. On the great gate of the inner court are balustrades of stone finely adorned with statues; and in the court are four brazen statues bigger than the life on pedestals; the one of James VI. and I. of England in his stole; the other of Charles I. in his boots, spurs, and sword, as he is sometimes painted by Vandyke; Charles II. is in Roman dress, as on the Exchange in London; and James II. in the same as he is in Whitehall." From the above description the changes wrought by the two Earls Patrick can be easily recognized.
The years pass and again there was dule and sorrow when the news came that on 11th May 1728, Charles, fourth Earl of Strathmore, had been killed in a scuffle in Forfar, between James Carnegie of Finavon and John Lyon of Brigton. The following letter, written by, Lady Nairne from Glamis on 15th May I728, and addressed to Mrs. Oliphant of Gask, gives a graphic description of the unhappy event and a personal picture of the Strathmore household at the time.
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"I know, dear Amelia, just now it would take a volume to describe the melancholy condition of the family from the highest to the lowest, but no words could express poor Lady Strathmore's sorrow nor can any but such unfortunately as I comprehend it. The state of her health is bad enough, she has a violent cough . . . you may be sure no care in my power will be neglected, but I have some influence with her by the unhappy sympathy in our conditions, so that often we cry together then I endeavour to amuse her with idle stories, for I know by dearbought experience in vain weak reason would command when love has led the way. I thank you for the kind intention . . . but they have employment enough here. Katy is with Lady Kathyl and Lady Strathmore often, but Mary is her principal favourite, her Lord was so fond of her . . . (on Tuesday senight, he told me he would wade up to the neck in watter to serve Miss Mary). Charlotte is all the housewife. We have to make tea in the drawing room, for Lady Mary Lyon2 is so ill she keeps her bed. You have heard the dismal story very wrong, for Brigton I believe would as soon hurt himself as Lord Strathmore, and so he thought and to the last was very fond of him. It was Finavon, who, without any previous warning ran throw and throw the body (and no sword drawn but his own) as he was walking on the street in Forfar after a burrial he had been at, whether it was premeditated malice
1. Lady Katharine Cochrane, sister of Lady Strathmore, who married the Earl of Galloway in 1729.
2. She died at Glamis Castle in 1780 in her eighty fifth year. The rooms she occupied in the Castle are still called by her name.
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or mad fury 1 know not. I shall make your compliments."
Robert Mercer, writing to his mother Lady Nairne from Aldie, on the same event says: "His friendship for which he was so conspicuous, for a more sincere friend never was, must alas have a hand in his exit, for by what I can understand had he had less of humanity to his murtherer and less friendship to his relative we might still have had the dear Strathmore."l
Prince Charles Edward Stuart did not visit Glamis as it was not in the line of his march northwards, but his opponent the Duke of Cumberland rested here with his army in 1746 on his way north. The people of Forfar must have been Jacobite in their sympathies, as it is said that a number of them came to Glamis under cover of night and cut the girths of the horses, that the progress of the Hanoverian army might be retarded. There is a tradition that the Duke occupied the same bed at Glamis as the old chevalier had used in 1716.
The poet Gray who was a friend of John, the ninth Earl of Strathmore, visited Glamis in 1765, and in a letter to Dr. Wharton speaks in glowing terms regarding it. He describes it as "rising proudly out of what seems a great and thick wood of tall trees, with a cluster of hanging towers on the top; the house from the height of it, the greatness of its mass, the many towers atop, and the spread of its wings, has really a very singular and striking appearance like nothing I ever saw: adding, you
1. See " Ofiphants of Gask," by E. Maxtone Graham, p. 145.
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will comprehend something of its shape from the plan of the second floor which 1 enclose."l Continuing, he says, "You descend to the Castle gradually from the south through a double and triple avenue of Scotch firs, sixty or seventy feet high under the gateways. This approach is full a mile long, and when you have passed the second gate the firs change to limes and another oblique avenue goes of on either hand towards the offices. The third gate delivers you into a court with a broad pavement and grass plots, adorned with statues of the four Stewart Kings, bordered with old silver firs and yew trees alternately, and opening with an iron palisade on either side, and two square old fashioned parterres surrounded by stone fruit walls."
From the detailed account thus given it may easily be seen that the Castle still retained its "appropriate accompaniments," but when Pennant visited it a few cars later in 1772, a change had taken place. The second and third gates with the outer court into which the latter "delivers you," also the square old fashioned parterres had all disappeared. The work of destruction had begun.
The view of the Castle by Pennant is not in forced perspective like the old one by White, but the court does not appear in it. The paved walk up to the front door is however still shown.
Captain Grose, the well known antiquarian Falstaff for whom Burns wrote his "Tam o' Shanter," visited Glamis in 1790, and made a sketch of the Castle, also of some of the curious relics that had
1. This plan is unfortunately lost.
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been found in the Loch of Forfar. In describing, the Castle, he states that it "originally consisted of two rectangular towers longer than broad, with walls of fifteen feet in thickness. They were connected by a square projection, and together formed a figure somewhat like the letter 'Z', saving that in the Castle all the angles were right ones. This form gave mutual defences to parts of the building. Great alterations and additions were made to the house by Patrick, Earl of Kinghorne. These were done in 1606: Tradition says Inigo Jones was the architect, and the building in some parts resembles Herriot's hospital and other buildings designed by him. The great hall was finished in 1621. Divers alterations have been projected in the building, for which one of the wings has been partly pulled down and is not yet rebuilt." Grose's view shows that the wing had been partly demolished, as it stands only one storey high.
In the summer of 1793, when he was just about twenty two years of age, Sir Walter Scott paid a visit to Glamis. He had been staying at Simprim, Meigle, with his bachelor friend Patrick Murray, and made an expedition one day to Glamis. In his "Letters on Demonology," he describes his visit in these terms: "The night I spent at Glammis was one of the two periods distant from each other at which I could recollect experiencing that degree of superstitious awe which my countrymen call eerie . . . . The heavy pile contains much in its appearance, and in the tradition connected with it, impressive to the imagination. It was the scene of
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the murder of a Scottish King of great antiquity - not indeed the gracious Duncan, with whom the name naturally associates itself, but Malcolm II. The extreme antiquity of the building is vouched by the thickness of the walls and the wild straggling arrangement of the accommodation within doors. As the late Earl seldom resided at Glammis, it was when I was there but half furnished, and that with moveables of great antiquity, which, with the pieces of chivalric armour hanging on the walls greatly contributed to the general effect of the whole. After a very hospitable reception from the late Peter Proctor1, seneschal of the Castle, I was conducted to my apartments in a distant part of the building. I must own that when 1 heard door after door shut, after my conductor had retired, I began to consider myself as too far from the living, and somewhat too near the dead. We had passed through what is called the King's Room, a vaulted apartment garnished with stags' antlers and other trophies of the chase, and said by tradition to be the spot of Malcolm's murder, and I had an idea of the vicinity of the Castle Chapel. In spite of the truth of history, the whole night scene in Macbeth's Castle rushed at once upon me and struck my mind more forcibly than even when I have seen its terrors represented by John Kemble and his inimitable sister. In a word
1. He was Factor on the Glamis Estates for fifty years, and died in 1819. His son, William David, succeeded him and was Factor for forty years, dying in 1860. The present Factor, Mr. Gavin Ralston, M.V.O., succeeded his father, Mr. Andrew Ralston, who had held the office for fifty two years. Thus there have been only four Factors in Glamis during the long period of 170 years. This speaks well both for proprietor and factor.
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I experienced sensations, which, though not remarkable for timidity or superstition, did not fail to affect me to the point of being disagreeable, while they were mingled at the same time with a strange and indescribable sort of pleasure, the recollection of which affords me gratification at this moment."
When at Glamis Sir Walter had the honour of drinking the health of the absent Earl from the famous "Lion of Glammis." It dates from early in the seventeenth century, bears the Augsburg mark and the letter 'E'. Its height is nine inches. It is the prototype of the "Poculum Potatorium" of the Baron of Bradwardine in "Waverley," the "Blessed Bear," being a massive beaker of silver, double gilt, moulded into the shape of a lion, and holding about an English pint of wine. The form alludes to the family name of Strathmore, and when exhibited, the cup must necessarily be emptied to the Earl's health. Sir Walter said that he "ought perhaps to be ashamed of recording that he had the honour of swallowing the contents of the Lion; and the recollection of the feat served to suggest the story of the Bear of Bradwardine." "Glenallan House," in "The Antiquary," is supposed to represent Glamis Castle, with which Scott was so well acquainted.
Years afterwards Sir Walter deplored the sad changes that had taken place, and the alterations made on the old building, which he felt had spoilt its character completely. In his "Essay on Landscape Gardening," he comments upon the proper domestic ornaments of the Castle Pleasaunce, and
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laments the barbarous innovation of the Capability-men; "down went many a trophy of old magnificence, courtyard, ornamented enclosure, fosse, avenue, barbican, and every external muniment of battled wall and flanking tower, out of the midst of which the ancient dome, rising high above all its characteristic accompaniments, and seemingly girt round by its appropriate defences, which again circled each other in their different gradations, looked as it should, the queen and mistress of the surrounding country. It was thus that the huge old tower of Glammis once showed its lordly head above seven circles (if I remember aright) of defensive boundaries, through which the friendly guest was admitted, and at each of which a suspicious person was unquestionably put to his answer. A disciple of Kent had the cruelty to render this splendid old mansion (the more modern part of which was the work of Inigo Jones) more parkish as he was pleased to call it; to raze all those exterior defences, and bring his mean and paltry gravel walk up to the very door from which, deluded by the name, one might have imagined Lady Macbeth (with the form and features of Siddons) issuing forth to receive King Duncan. It is thirty years and upwards since I have seen Glammis, but I have not yet forgotten or forgiven the atrocity which under pretence of improvement deprived that lordly place of its appropriate accompaniments, 'leaving an ancient dome and towers like these, beggared and outraged.' " In such burning terms Scott pours forth his strong disapproval of the so-called "improvements" that had been carried
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out at Glamis, but which good taste and judgement pronounced disfigurement. "Capability Brown" and his followers had started the fashion about 1775 of modernising grounds, and it was one of his school who, unfortunately, had effected the changes that Scott so bitterly regretted at Glamis. The walls that encircled the Castle were all taken down with the exception of the two flanking towers still seen on the lawn. The grounds were put into one park which is still called "the Angles" from the "angular shape of the old enclosures and rows of trees along them,"1 and the gateways were removed. The avenues were greatly mutilated, and "although a fine park of upwards of two hundred acres has been formed, yet not in keeping with the venerable Castle, and the period to which it belongs."2 Two of the antique gateways which stood at intervals on the main avenue were rebuilt at the north and south entrances to the present park where they still remain.3
Many alterations have been effected and additions made to the Castle and policies since Sir Walter's time. Important structural changes were carried out in 1811 by the tenth Earl, and in 1849 by the twelfth Earl. More than a century ago the west wing was burnt down and rebuilt afterwards.
It was probably during the rebuilding of this wing that the stone gables and gablets with which
1. "New Statistical Account."
2. Ibid.
3. The stone bridge, which spans the river Dean as it crosses the north avenue, was fortunately left intact. On a panel fixed to the parapet, a coronet appears with the monograms of Earl John and Countess Elizabeth beneath, and the date 1697. Earl John was the fourth Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, being the son of Earl Patrick.
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the roof of each of the wings was finished, together with the attic story, had been removed from the east wing, and the present horizontal "Strawberry Hill Gothic cornice, with crenellated parapet erected instead1.
In 1891 a wing, in the baronial style, was built at the east end, and within recent years much has been done to preserve the old features in and around the Castle, no trouble being spared to uphold and maintain its ancient Scottish character by the present Earl and Countess of Strathmore whose taste and judgment in these arrangements have been noteworthy.
In 1905, the young Lord Glamis came of age, and in honour of the event a series of festivities extending over the best part of a week were planned, which made the occasion a gay and joyous memory in Angus.
Among all the functions the ball given in the ancient banqueting hall - now the drawing-room - was the most splendid and memorable. Lights glowed from a hundred windows in the old Castle, and gusts of music swept through its ancient passages and vaults. Surely never was there such "a venue for a modern festivity" as this medieval castle with its vaulted roofs, great stone staircases and walls fifteen feet thick. One who was present remarked that the proper actors for a ball at Glamis would be men in armour and ladies in hoops and powder. Yet, 'neath the shadows of its six hundred years of history, age grew mellow and youth grew
1. MacGibbon and Ross.
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merry. The room was lighted by enormous candelabra, and the great fireplace was filled in with the gorgeous glowing of autumn flowers and foliage. The musicians were accommodated at one end of the rooms and the recesses were furnished with couches and chairs. The scene was one of the greatest brilliancy; the flowers, the jewels, the soft colours, the picturesque room with its arched ceiling covered with elaborate plaster-work dated 1621, the portraits of former Earls, of Knights and ladies on the walls, the brilliant throng which surged out and in, all made a spectacle of unique interest and beauty. The Earl and Countess of Strathmore made ideal hosts, the gracious dignity of the Countess singling her out even in that splendid assembly.
An incident took place in the Castle twenty eight years ago, during the childhood of our present Queen, which the present writer described at the request of Lady Cynthia Asquith for the authorised biography of the Queen written by her. The writer thinks it may not be unfitting to include it in this historical description of the early home of the Queen.
It was a still November afternoon in the year 1909, the towers and clustering turrets of the Castle loomed through the thick mist which encircled them, and the haughs behind Kirriemuir were only dimly visible. The flowing lines of the distant Grampians, at this season usually flecked with snow, were now completely lost to sight. Pursuing his leisurely Journey down the long main avenue which divides the noble expanse of the Angles Park into two, the writer felt imbued with a sense of the gloom of his
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surroundings. The atmosphere was cold and damp. The "one red leaf, the last of its clan," fell almost at his feet. Nought was heard but an occasional "drip drip" from the boughs of the spreading trees and shrubs. Already the shadows of early evening were beginning to gather and settle around the stately pile, which, bereft of its "appropriate accompaniments" in the shape of the seven circles of walls which, at one time, surrounded it, seemed to stand tall and spectral like, Yet with a solemn grandeur entirely its own. The formal garden, with its yew trees, centuries old, the great sun dial, the wide and open lawn flanked by two circular towers, sole remnants of the first line of defence - all spoke of other days and of another order of things than the present.
Entering the Castle by the low main doorway which still displays the huge knocker dated 1689, and passing the "yett" of massive iron from which, as Sir Walter Scott has said, "One might have imagined Lady Macbeth (with form and features of Siddons) issuing forth to receive King Duncan," the writer mounted the great stone staircase and entered the drawing room, the genial warmth of which contrasted favourably with the chill and gloom outside. Lamps in crimson shades threw warm gules upon the polished oaken floor. A blazing fire of logs burned in the huge fire place and lit up the room, so that one could recognise the family portraits and other pictures particularly the fine one of Claverhouse, by Lely, and the quaint portrait of Patrick, the ninth lord, by Clouet.
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Two lighted candles in tall silver sconces stood upon a lacquer chest or coffer, immediately beneath the large old fashioned picture of Earl Patrick, in a Roman dress, surrounded by his family, and pointing to his finished work the Castle and its surroundings.
Here, amid these surroundings, so full of historical associations, the writer was kindly greeted by the Countess of Strathmore and other members of the family assembled there. After some general conversation the Countess sat down at the piano, and played a few bars of a quaint old minuet. Suddenly, as if by a magician's touch, two little figures seemed to rise from the floor and dance, with admirable precision and grace, the stately measure so characteristic of the eighteenth century. These little children were the Hon. David Lyon and Lady Elizabeth Lyon, the youngest son and daughter of the house.
The former had donned part of the dress of the family fool or jester, quaintly interesting, and the latter had assumed the robe and little cap, taken from the lacquer chest, of a little girl of the period of James VI. and I. The dress was of satin, of heliotrope colour, laced with silver, and the cap was a tight fitting one, also trimmed with silver. Surely never was there such a setting for so bright and fascinating a scene. The lofty room, the historic surroundings, the dresses of a bygone period, the quaint music, so suggestive of Purcell and his formal school, all combined to form a scene which could not readily be forgotten by those privileged to behold it. As the dance proceeded the glamour
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or illusion seemed to increase. Was it reality or had the psychic influence of historic Glamis clouded the mind and conjured up a scene to delude the senses? 'No "crystal ball" experience could have been more effective.
For one brief, yet supreme, half hour the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries were one. New reveries were forming, leading to others still more historically suggestive and alluring, when suddenly the music stopped and the little dancers, making a low bow and curtsy, clapped their hands with delight, and in this way brought the minds of all back to present-day reality.
Little choruses of praise were heard on every side, and Lady Elizabeth, on being asked by the writer the name of the character she had adopted, said with great empressement, "I call myself the Princess Elizabeth," alluding, no doubt, both to her own name, and to that of the daughter of King James VI. and I., who was Princess Royal of Great Britain and Ireland, and who became Queen of Bohemia. The words of the little lady had a deeper and more prophetic meaning than the thought which prompted them. Then it was only acting, but now it is reality. The daughter of the ancient House of Glamis is now the Queen Consort of our beloved King George.
In the same year the Countess of Strathmore instituted an Arts and Crafts Guild in Glamis, with the object of encouraging the practice of good artistic work from old designs. Instruction in needlework, carving in wood and stone, iron
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work and other branches of applied art was given during the winter evenings, and brought out considerable skill and talent hitherto unknown among the inhabitants - the wood-carving class, under the late Mr. Frank McNicoll, being specially successful. A highly interesting and successful exhibition of the work was held in the dining-room of the Castle, and was assisted by large numbers throughout the County of Angus. A bed, beautifully embroidered by the Countess - an exact replica of one in which the Prince James, the Chevalier de St. George slept when he visited the Castle in 1716, and a copy of the old chair in the crypt of the Castle, bearing the date 1689, and the letters Q.M. II. - Queen Mary II., made by Mr. Frank McNicoll, were outstanding exhibits.
Time quickly passes, and on 4th August 1914 the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's birth - the Great War was declared. A hospital for convalescent soldiers was instituted in Glamis Castle by the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. The spacious dining-room was fitted up as a ward, which was placed under the care of a competent nurse and assistant, the Countess herself taking an active interest in its management. Lady Rose Lyon, the second daughter of the Earl and Countess, frequently took charge during her mother's absence. She had received some special training for the purpose in one of the London hospitals, and proved a very capable superintendent. It goes without saving that the men were treated with the greatest consideration, and repeated expression was given by them of their appreciation of
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the unremitting kindness they received, and of the pleasure they experienced in residing within so hospitable and interesting a dwelling. To this day Lord and Lady Strathmore receive letters expressing in the most touching way the warm regard in which they are held by many of the gallant soldiers who had the privilege of receiving their help and sympathy.
In 1916, Lady Rose married Commander the Hon. W. S. Leveson Gower, and her younger sister, Lady Elizabeth, took her place in the hospital. By her unwearied kindness, as well as by her bright and winning ways, she readily endeared herself to all the inmates. Untiring in her efforts to keep the soldiers amused, she organised concerts and other entertainments to relieve the monotony of the hospital life, and her presence brought joy and solace to all the suffering ones. Being the youngest daughter of the house she was the darling of her family, and the same pleasure which her presence invariably conveyed to her kith and kin seemed to be felt also by all the inmates of the hospital, who were always made to feel that they were members of the household.
In the autumn of 1916 fire broke out one afternoon in the upper rooms of the great central tower of the Castle. For a time the venerable pile seemed in great danger, but the efforts of the fire brigade from Dundee to arrest the progress of the fire eventually proved successful, and about nine o'clock in the evening, the flames were finally extinguished. When the danger was at its greatest Lady Elizabeth, who was then only a girl of sixteen, but displayed a
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spirit worthy of "Duncraggan's Dame," at once took the initiative, and, calling the servants and employees together, arranged them in a long, line or queue, and in this way pictures, furniture and other valuables were passed from hand to hand down the stairs and so conveyed from the centre of danger to a place of safety. A cry of Joyous thankfulness went up from the assembled multitude when the fury of the flames was at last subdued, and loudly with "Highland Honours" was the young lady of the house toasted that night, both in cottage and in hall, for the calm fortitude and heroism she had displayed when the home of her fathers was threatened with destruction.
In the course of its long history Glamis Castle has been visited by many personages of high rank, distinction and talent. Not to mention the kings and queens of old, and the great men and women renowned in our Scottish history, there have been in recent times a regular influx of Royal and Princely persons, who have felt drawn towards it by the historic glamour which seems to surround its towers and walls.
King George V. and Queen Mary, King Edward VIII., our present beloved King, and Queen with their family the Castle having, been the early home of Her Majesty and the birthplace of her younger daughter, the Princess Margaret Rose have all experienced its attraction and walked beneath the shadow of its walls.
Artists and critics, poets, historians and philosophers, statesmen and soldiers, Church dignitaries,
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and science, men of letters, men of noble rank, men of boundless wealth have gathered here - a long procession - to behold.
"The historic demesne
For Shakespeare famous and the murderous Thane."
It is matter of common knowledge that there is a secret chamber in the Castle, the exact situation of which is known only to three individuals at one time the Earl of the day, his eldest son, and a third party whom they take into their confidence. A large crop of legends and theories has arisen regarding, the nature of the secret with which the room is connected, and the reasons for its preservation. The tale most frequently repeated is to this effect: -
Some centuries ago the Lord of Glamis and his guest, the Earl of Crawford, otherwise styled "Earl Beardie"1, or the "Tiger Earl," were playing cards
1. It is authoritatively stated, however, that Earl Beardie "tuik the hot fever and died in the year of God, ane thousand four hundred and fifty four Years, and wes buried with gret triumph in the Greyfriars of Dundee in his forbears sepulchre."
The late Rev. Dr. A. K. H. Boyd, of St. Andrews, who was a guest at Glamis Castle in 1879, tells the following humorous incident in connection with the haunted room, in his well known volume of Reminiscences, entitled "Twenty five Years of St. Andrews": One morning the subject of the secret room was introduced in the conversation. The Earl told a story of an excellent church dignitary who had been staying at the Castle some years before. He was a fine example of the clerical beggar and was always collecting money for church building. One evening at Glamis, he had just gone to bed "when all of a sudden the ghost appeared; apparently a Strathmore of some centuries back. With great presence of mind, the clergyman took the first word. Addressing the ghost, he said he was most anxious to raise money for a church he was erecting; that he had a bad cold and could not well get out of bed; but that his collecting book was on his dressing table, and he would be extremely obliged if his visitor would give him a subscription. Upon this the ghost vanished and has never come back any more."
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in what is now the secret room of the Castle. The evening was Saturday, and the host and guest had become so engrossed in their play that they did not realise the flight of time, and that Sunday was approaching, until they were reminded of the hour by an attendant. They then swore a terrible oath together, agreeing that they would not cease their play until the game was finished, although they should have to play until "the crack of doom." The oath had hardly been uttered when the hour of twelve struck, and a stranger appeared. In even dispassionate tones he informed them that he would keep the compact and take them at their word. The tradition is that these noblemen meet every year in the secret room on the anniversary of that night and play cards, and that they will continue to do so until the Great Judgment Day.
Secret rooms were common in old Scottish Castles. The rude stern nature of the times demanded that a place of retreat should be available for members of the family on the approach of danger, but so far as the writer can discover, the secret of none of them has been so jealously guarded as that of Glamis. With the exception of Glamis they are all "open secrets," and visitors are deliberately told them to their unmingled joy and delight. The "whence and where" of Glamis, however, no tongue can tell. The mystery has never been solved.
The late Andrew Lang, poet, historian and essayist, writer of books on ghosts, and who used to say that his correspondents were of three classes - literary, ghostly seekers and counsellors, and lastly humbugs
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from time to time emerged from his retreat at St. Andrews, the "Grey city by the Northern sea" to imbibe something of the mystic romance and psychic power of Glamis. Sometimes, on these occasions, he visited the writer at the Manse, who like himself had been a student of St. Andrews, and he never failed to express his admiration for the Castle, and of the inspiration for his works, particularly the ghostly ones, that it afforded him.
Lang was an intensely interesting conversationalist, a "Palace of Truth" indeed. His views on the secret chamber of Glamis Castle were peculiar and somewhat fantastic, and need not be repeated here.
When talking of the secret chamber, however, he drew an analogy between it and a subterranean chamber which the late Marquess of Bute had discovered under the extensive remains of the Augustinian Priory of St. Andrews, which he acquired about the time he became Lord Rector of the University. Lord Bute, being psychical in temperament, was greatly interested in this discovery, and was anxious to find out what this spacious chamber beneath the ancient refectory, with its vaulted roof and fragments of massive pillar, had been used for in monastic times. The Rt. Rev. Sir David O. Hunter Blair, Lord Bute's friend and biographer, suggested that it was merely a substructure, such as is to be seen at Battle Abbey, Newbattle (near Edinburgh), and elsewhere, intended to keep the refectory high and dry out of the damp, and designed, of course, in the picturesque Early Pointed architecture of the time. Lord
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Bute was not satisfied with this theory, and announced that he intended to ask a clairvoyant lady, "with a remarkable gift of seeing what had gone on anywhere at any given period of history," to look into the matter and ascertain what use the Canons Regular were making of the Chamber say, a few years before the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Sir David, describing this incident in one of his recent works, says: "In due course Miss X. arrived at St. Andrews, and was requested to pass an entire night, from dusk to dawn, in this vaulted crypt, and see what she could see. Provided, I believe, with fur wraps, sherry, and sandwiches and a comfortable arm chair. The lady duly kept her vigil, but reported next morning that nothing had happened. I rather gathered that she had owned to having slept during a good part of the night: anyhow, Lord Bute was annoyed at her failure and urged on her yet another nocturnal watch.
"I found him on the following morning, pleased and excited at the outcome of the second night's vigil. At two in the morning, or thereabouts, a sudden though faint light, reported the watcher, filled the chamber, and she saw a procession of black-hooded figures appear from the direction of the door leading to the refectory above, and proceed slowly through the crypt (I think in silence) to the ruined staircase at the opposite end, leading up to the chapter house. This building, still roofed and almost perfect, did not belong to Lord Bute, but was Crown property, and was divided from the vaulted chamber by a wall. The ghostly procession paid no
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attention whatever to this modern partition but simply walked through it in the direction of the chapter house beyond, and was seen no more.
" 'A most satisfactory séance,' this second night's vigil was pronounced to have been; but there were two remarkable features about it which puzzled Lord Bute, and as to which, like Rosa Dartle, he wanted to know.'
"Why black hooded figures? when, as everybody knows, the colour of the Augustinian habit was white. Could Miss X. have been deceived by deep shadows and have mistaken white for black? 'No, she averred; for what she saw under these conditions was always self luminous shining by its own eerie light; so if she saw black hoods and habits they were black.
"The suggested (alternative) explanations were two. Either, in those stormy days, with Dissolution hanging over them, the Canons (much like the French Dominicans in recent times) had exchanged their white habits for black so as to be less conspicuous; or else, according to the custom of their Order, the Augustinians, when walking in procession or out of doors, would don black hooded cloaks over their white cassocks.
"So far, so good; but here was a much more intriguing incident. When the sombre procession had vanished through the wall in the direction of the chapter house, there was instantly heard, as it were from the latter building, a strange sound - the lowing of cattle, roaring of bulls, 'mooing' of many cows. What could this mean? what could
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it have portended, in the middle of the sixteenth century?
" 'When you go to Edinburgh,' said Lord Bute, 'consult the memoirs (partly autobiographical) of Ninian Winram, last Prior of St. Andrews Monastery who (I think) conformed to the Kirk, and anyhow held the property at the time of the Dissolution.'
"I did consult the book in question (with the help of a kind Librarian), and ascertained this fact. Ninian Winram, custodian of the abandoned Priory, had no longer any Canons to apply the chapter-house to its proper use. It was (and is) the soundest of the derelict buildings; so he utilised it by turning it into a cow-house, Scottice 'byre'.
"I report the facts, I hope with accuracy. But I do not pretend to explain them."
Lang, on his last visit to Glamis, gave the writer a poem, composed by himself, and written in his own "crabbed" hand. It is as follows:-
HERODOTUS IN EGYPT.
He left the land of Youth, he left the young,
The smiling Gods of Greece, he passed the isle
Where Jason tarried and where Sappho sung;
He sought the secret founted wave of Nile,
And of that old world, dead a weary while,
Heard what the Priests told in their mystic tongue,
And voyaged through the holy fanes among
Dark tribes that worshipped Cat and Crocodile.
He learned the tales of Death Divine and Birth,
Strange loves of Hawk, and Horus, Sky, and Earth,
The marriage and the murder of the Sun,
The shrines of beasts and Ghosts he wandered through
And knew in them the Gods of Greece, and knew
Behind all creeds the everlasting One.
As so many descriptions of Glamis Castle have been written from time to time, it seems almost
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superfluous to attempt another, but the story of the old pile would surely be incomplete were nothing recorded in these pages of its modern state and appearance, that comparisons might be drawn in the light of historic continuity between what it has been in the past, and what it is now in these latter days of movement and kaleidoscopic change. The Castle stands in the middle of the valley, or "Howe," as it is called locally, of Strathmore, a little way off the road from Dundee to Kirriemuir, and is about five miles distant from the loch and town of Forfar. It is surrounded by an extensive and well wooded park, and is approached by three avenues on the north, south, and east; the leading entrance being from the south. Here an old gateway (already referred to) which had been erected by Earl Patrick further down the avenue has been rebuilt. It is of stone, with three arches, and battlemented at the top. Stone lions, eagles, and unicorns, supporting finely pointed shields are displayed on coigns of vantage, while beneath, figures of satyrs are carved in relief. The wrought-iron gates themselves were a gift to the present Earl and Countess of Strathmore on the occasion of their Golden Wedding. From the gate a fine avenue thickly planted with trees is led for a short way through the wealth of greenery until it turns sharply to the left and enters upon an extensive open meadow with a row of trees on each side, and continues in a straight line for three quarters of a mile up to the principal entrance. The Castle at first sight has the appearance of a French chateau of the late sixteenth century. It is built of old red
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sandstone. Two wings extend on either side of the central tower or keep, and the large seventeenth century tower, containing the great staircase, projects in front of the main building, part of the walls of which having been removed to receive it.
The main doorway is at the foot of the tower, and at the top there is a clock which occupies the place of a window, with fine stone mullions. The upper portion of the main building is in the distinctively Scottish style of the seventeenth century. The angle turrets, two stories in height, with tiny upper windows and high roofs, completely hide the gables from view. Square parapets, forming the end of a platform roof, are crowned with a quaint stone turret.1 The open promenade at the top is protected by a very fine wrought iron railing, a copy of the identical one that Walker, the smith at Glamis, made for Earl Patrick in 1673. The tower forms one side of a quadrangle, the other buildings completing it, and together they enclose an extensive courtyard.
The entrance doorway is supported by pilasters in the debased Corinthian style. Immediately over it is a circular aperture, or niche, in which the bust of the first Earl is placed. The scrolls over the windows, and the coats of arms with dates of the various Earls and Countesses, ranged along the walls, are quite in accordance with the style and fashion of the period. The Royal Arms beautifully sculptured in stone are displayed over the outer door which is of oak, and which is provided with
1. "Castellated and Domestic Architecture in Scotland," by MacGibbon and Ross.
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an immense iron knocker bearing the date (1689) when the work of Earl Patrick was completed.
Behind this door a heavily grated iron gate or yett is erected, which probably guarded the entrance of the older fifteenth century Castle. Its height is six feet eight inches; its breadth four feet eight inches. It has six perpendicular and nine horizontal bars within the frame. Each bar measures one and a half inches in breadth by six eighths of an inch in depth, but in the half which contains the eyes it is one and one eighth inch square in section. It has two hinges of ordinary type, and two bolts fourteen and a half inches in length and one and three eighths inches in diameter, and cylindrical in form. Each hasp is a foot in length, and has a hook at the bottom from which hangs a ring. The staple does not as usual spring directly forward from a bar so as to be protected by it, but from a neck which penetrates the bar of the frame sideways and is then directed forward. The iron door is four and a half inches behind the oaken one, of which the wood is modern but the iron ancient, including the hinges, bars, and square headed nails with which it is strengthened. Each door is protected by a rebate. A single hole in the wall is the only evidence that strengthening bars may have been in use formerly.1
Within this ancient doorway three staircases are seen. That on the right leads down to the dungeons, to the old vaulted kitchen with its immense chimney, and the old well in the thickness of the wall which supplied the Castle with water in time of siege;
1. See "Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries."
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that to the left leads up to the Retainers' Hall now known as the "Crypt". It is fifty feet long. Its walls and low vaulted roof are composed entirely of stone. There are seven windows, some of which are cut out of the thickness of the walls and make large alcoves with stone benches on each side, and which probably "had been used as sleeping chambers in old days."1 Specimens of chain armour and of old Scottish weapons adorn the walls. Figures in full suits of mail stand at intervals beneath the stone arches, while the furniture is chiefly Jacobean. On the back of a fine old oaken chair which bears the figure of a crowned Queen carved in relief, with the inscription Q.M.II, 1689 Queen Mary II - hangs the buff coloured felt coat, laced with silver, of the gallant Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee. The walls of the crypt and various staircases for a long period were covered with plaster, but the late Earl removed this so that the dressed stonework may be seen and the ancient character of the interior preserved. The crypt and lower portion of the tower are formed of large rough blocks of old red sandstone. The walls in some parts are fifteen feet thick, and secret staircases and recesses or closets were made in the thickness of them. Two of these staircases have been discovered in recent times, one leading from the crypt down to the old well, and another from the drawing room to a trapdoor in a dressing room above.
The third and great staircase is spiral with a hollow newel in the middle, and circles round the interior
1. See Article by Lady Strathmore in "Pall Mall Magazine."
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of the tower of the tower from base to summit. It is the most recently built of all the staircases, and consists of one hundred and forty three steps, six feet ten inches in width, each of one stone.
From the south east corner of the crypt a dark passage leads through the solid sandstone to King Duncan's hall a quaint looking chamber where a fire place was recently discovered in the wall. The dining room is entered from the west end of the crypt, and is a fine lofty modern apartment with an elegant plaster ceiling. Originally the ceiling was divided into panels, on which one of the stories from Ovid's "Metamorphoses" was painted. The walls are panelled in oak, and display the emblazonments and arms of the family and allied houses. In a recess at one end stands a side board of richly carved oak, above which hangs the full length portrait of the late Earl of Strathmore, by H. T. Wells, R.A., presented to the Countess by the tenantry of Glamis, while at the opposite end of the dining room is the full length portrait of the Countess, by R. Herdman, R.S.A., presented to the late Earl in 1876 when his son (the present Earl) came of age. Beautiful portraits of the present Earl and Countess by Philip de Laszlo, M.V.O., presented to them on the occasion of their Golden Wedding are also hung in a good light in this room.
On the carved oak mantel the mottoes of the Lyon family appear - "In te Domine speravi" (In Thee O Lord have I trusted), and of the family of Bowes of Streatlam - "Sans variance terme de ma vie" (without change till life ends).
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On either side of the fire place hang portraits of the present Earl in full uniform, and of Patrick, Lord Glamis, his eldest son - the latter portrait having been presented by the tenantry to his lordship on the occasion of his marriage in 1908.
A staircase leads past King Duncan's hall to the tapestry room on the next floor. The walls of this chamber, as may be inferred from its name, are lined with old tapestry depicting classical scenes, some of them resembling landscapes by Claude de Lorraine.
At the door a quaint stone ledge or seat arrests the eye. It may have been a sentry seat in olden times when it was found necessary to post guards at entrances for purposes of security and defence. Cabinets of old china and furniture, antique in date, and elegant in design, relieve the sombre appearance of the room. A fine chimney piece of carved oak, in which a representation of the virgin is inserted, has been placed above the original stone mouldings, part of which are shown and form an effective contrast to the old wood-work. The fire place is lined with blue and white Dutch tiles.
Leaving this room by the door we entered, and ascending a few steps, we find ourselves in "King Malcolm's Room." The ceiling of this apartment is also of beautiful plaster work. Attention is drawn to the fire place with the coat of arms above, and the vaulted window recess. China cupboards, and cases of curios and miniatures, many of them of high value, are displayed in suitable places, and round the walls fine old tapestry, dating from the time of Earl Patrick, is hung.
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A little recess beyond, also filled with valuable porcelain, leads to the old Banqueting Hall or modern drawing room certainly the most splendid apartment in the Castle. It is sixty feet long by twenty two feet broad, and has a fine arched ceiling of beautiful old plaster work, made by the same English workman who made the ceilings at Muchalls and Craigievar, bearing the monograms of John, second Earl of Kinghorne, and his Countess, Margaret Erskine, daughter of the Earl of Mar, and the date 1621. The fire place is of carved freestone, measuring within the jambs about six feet high, by eight feet wide, and four feet deep. The jambs are formed of caryatides or female figures1 carved in stone, and the flat arch is built of stones so fixed into each other that they are able to support a heavy superstructure without deflection2.
Earl Patrick had a great liking for this room, and speaks of it in his "Book of Record" as "my great hall which is a room that I ever loved." Three great windows, deeply embrasured in the walls, which here are eight feet in thickness, give light to the apartment. A chamber at one end of the room formed out of the thickness of the walls is called the well room. It has the circular opening for water supply from the well below. These wall chambers as already stated, are common in the Castle, and are characteristic of fifteenth and early sixteenth century buildings.
1. Their dishevelled appearance is supposed to commemorate the sufferings and death of Lady Glamis, wire of the sixth Lord, who was burned on the Castle hill of Edinburgh.
2. See "Historical Castles and Mansions of Scotland," by A. H. Millar, L.L.D.
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At the west end of the room, in what was once a fire place, afterwards built up and now converted into a cupboard, is seen the motley dress of the old family fool or jester1. It is adorned with bells, and is probably the only complete dress of the kind in Scotland. The Glamis family retained the services of a "private buffoon" until comparatively recent times. A tradition regarding one of them used frequently to be recounted. At Castle Lyon, Longforgan, there was a famous ash tree, long known as the "Glamis tree," because it was said to have been transplanted from the policies of Glamis. On one occasion the family jester left Glamis and travelled southwards to Castle Lyon, having cut an ash sapling at the former place to assist him on the way. When he reached his destination he trimmed his trusty staff and set it up in the park at Castle Lyon as a memorial of his journey, where of course, it took root, and flourished so rapidly, that in 1796 it had attained the dimensions of a goodly tree, and became known as the "Glamish ash."2 No trace of it can now be found. An old lacquered chest stands near the cupboard above mentioned. It contains a large number of court dresses of different dates from the time of James VI., to the end of the eighteenth
1. Sir Walter Scott in "Waverley" makes the following reference to the Glamis jester: "At Glamis Castle is preserved the dress of one of the jesters, very handsome, and ornamented with many bells. It is not above thirty years since such a character stood by the sideboard of a nobleman of the first rank in Scotland, and occasionally mixed in the conversation, till he carried the joke rather too far in making proposals to one of the young ladies of the family, and publishing the banns betwixt her and himself in church."
2. See "Historical Castles and Mansions of Scotland," by A. H. Millar, L.L.D.
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century. The collection includes dresses of ladies and children, also gentlemen's coats and habits of the above periods, some of them richly embroidered. There are also wigs of various shapes and sizes, shoes and slippers. They are in wonderful preservation. The walls of the Banqueting Hall are lined with portraits, mostly family ones. The largest and most conspicuous is that of Patrick, first Earl of Strathmore. He is shown sitting with his three sons, and pointing to the Castle he had so beautifully restored and enlarged. Another valuable portrait in the room is that of Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, attributed to Sir Peter Lely. It is the most celebrated of the portraits of that renowned soldier, and engravings of it are plentiful. It is not known how it came into the possession of the Lyon family. Claverhouse was a friend and neighbour of Earl Patrick, and probably it had been gifted to, or acquired by the latter after the death of the former at Killiecrankie. A recent biographer of Claverhouse adopts the view that the portrait was painted by Kneller, as "it bears a striking resemblance to some of Kneller's best work," further, that "Lely died in 1680 when Claverhouse was but a Captain of Horse, and considering how he in his wealthiest days even was a good manager of his private fortune, and in personal matters economical rather than profuse, it seems likely that the picture would not have been painted at the opening of his career, but rather some time subsequent to his marriage, probably between 1686 and 1688, during which years he was frequently in London, and was
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at the zenith of his worldly prosperity."1 Napier also takes this view. The majority of experts who have studied the portrait pronounce it, however, to be the work of Lely. 2
A portrait of the ninth Earl of Strathmore is noticeable among those of the family. He was a singularly handsome and attractive man, as the portrait testifies. He married Mary Eleanor Bowes, only child of George Bowes of Streatlam Castle and Gibside, Co. Durham, in 1767. He travelled much in Spain and Portugal, and died at sea on his passage to Lisbon in 1776. Another portrait in the possession of the family is that of Ann Maxtone. She was the wife of Thomas Bowes of Streatlam, who died in 1661. Her prudence and wisdom during long years of widowhood saved the estates for her descendants.
Quaint interest attaches to the portrait, perhaps the most valuable in the room, of Patrick, first Earl of Kinghorne and ninth Lord Glamis, dating from the year 1583, when he was eight years old. It is beautifully painted, and the artist is almost certainly known to be Francois Clouet, the famous Court painter of the sixteenth century at the Court of Henry II. of France, and shows the youthful lord attired in the costume of the period. He wears a tightly fitting doublet and ruff, and on his head a velvet cap richly jewelled. Dignity and sweetness
1. M. Barrington.
2. In the anonymous journey through Scotland in 1723, formerly referred to, the following reference to this is made: "In the drawing room is the best picture I ever saw of Queen Mary of Modena - the Duke of Lauderdale in his robes, by Sir Peter Lely, and the late Lord Dundee."
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are the prevailing characteristics or the face as portrayed. On the reverse of the picture is the likeness of the private secretary of the young lord. It is also well executed and is evidently the work of the same artist. The youth is holding an ink well in his hand, and the following rhyme in old Gothic letters is seen at the side, with the name of the secretary George Boswell: -
My Lord, I am at your comand,
So wes my fatheris will
That I shud be ane trew servad
And yat I will fulfill
Quhat zow comand me eik
I sall do my devoir
God grant me have sic skill
As haid my father befoir.
m. ccccc. lxxxiii.
Georgius Boswell, aetatis
Suae F.D.
The portrait is the earliest in the family series at the Castle.
Another picture of value and interest is a water colour of the Castle by the great artist, J. M. W. Turner.
Old cabinets and many quaint and beautiful relics are contained in this room a fine Jacobite cup, and a miniature exquisitely painted on parchment, of one of the former lords of Glamis, may be singled out for special mention.
Leaving the Banqueting Hall, the Chapel is entered. It is thirty feet long by twenty feet broad. The walls and ceiling are panelled, and are covered
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with paintings - thirty-four in number - relating to the life of Christ and the twelve apostles. De Wet, the Dutch artist, engaged by Earl Patrick, executed these paintings in 1688. He was the individual who painted the portraits of the Stewart Kings in the gallery at Holyrood, and who gave them all a "strong family likeness" and noses like the knocker of a door." The subjects are full length pictures of: -
The Saviour. St. James, major.
St. John. St. Philip.
St. Matthias. St. James, minor.
St. Simeon. St. Thomas.
St. Matthew. St. Andrew.
St. Peter.
together with pictures of the Last Supper, the Resurrection, the Nativity, and the Saviour with Mary Magdalene in the garden of the sepulchre. In this last scene the face and features of Our Lord are those of King Charles I., the martyr king. He wears a Cavalier's hat. The countenance of King Charles showed such a mingled expression of sweetness and dignity, and sadness, that artists of genius have often preferred to all others the head of Charles as the model of Our Saviour, so great is the character of majesty, so deep the feeling which the pale and suffering features convey to the beholder. From such a personality only could such words proceed: "I know no resolutions more worthy a Christian King than to prefer his conscience before his kingdom."1
The fifteen panels in the ceiling are thus arranged: -
Shepherds of Bethlehem.
Nativity.
Angel and Joseph.
Flight into Egypt.
The Baptism.
Temptation.
Peter Walking on the Sea.
The Woman taken in Adultery.
The Transfiguration.
The Syro-Phoenician Woman.
Entry to Jerusalem.
Gethsemane.
The Kiss of Judas.
The Scourging.
Bearing the Cross.
As already mentioned these subjects were all reproduced from the engravings in an old Bible which was in the Castle, but has now disappeared.
The altar stands upon a raised platform at the east end. The quaint stone mullioned windows are filled in with stained glass by Kempe, London, the subjects being mainly scriptural incidents. The original contract between Earl Patrick and De Wet is still preserved in the charter room. It states that "Mr. de Vite Limner" shall supply painted pictures for the Chapel, and that "the fifteen largest panels shall contain the story of our Blessed Saviour, conform to 'cutts' in a Bible here in the house or in a service book, the rest of the panels in the roof to be as he shall invent, some to be filled with the Angels,
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as in the skie and such other things as he shall invent and be esteemed proper for the work. And forasmuch as yr are upon the syde walls of the Chappell and rowme within sexteen large pannels, a doore peece and that above the table of the altar, the said Mr. De Vite does hereby bind and oblidge him to paint in als full stature as the pannels will permitt the pictures conforme as they are be found in the two books above mentioned, of our Saviour, his twelve Apostles, this in the Chappell and in the rowme within that of King Charles the Martyr, and of St. Paul and St. Stephen, ane altar piece expressing, the Crucifixion, and the doore piece the Ascension. Each picture to have the name yr of above, and at the foot a scroll containing the same words as are expressed in the 'cutts'. "
The details are precisely laid down, and De Wet undertook to execute the whole of the work for £90 sterling one half "to be payed at such times as he shall call or have occasione for it at any time during the work, providing that before the payt of the full half three pairts of foure of the whole work be done, and the oyr equall half the sownes so agreed on shall be thankfullie payd at his finishing and perfecting the same." He was also to have his bed and board at the Castle whilst employed on the work, although there was no time stated for its completion. The Earl was to prepare the roof of the Chapel and such panels of the side-walls as were to be decorated with pictures, and was also to provide oil-colours, cloths, and canvas where these were required. 1
1. Earl Patrick's Diary.
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The "roome off the Chapel" contained a portrait of "King Charles, the Martyr," and representations of St. Paul and St. Stephen, but these have now disappeared.
The Chapel thus erected by Earl Patrick was dedicated in 1688. It is said that the Chapel at Glamis is the only one in Scotland, with the exception of Roslin, in which the exclusive use of the Liturgy dates from a period preceding the Revolution in 1688. Roslin and Glamis thus unite the present Episcopal Church with that of the past. The Chapel of Glamis was consecrated just on the eve of the Revolution, but as the record of its original consecration had been lost, it was rededicated in 1865 to St. Michael and all Angels, after being renovated and beautified by the late Earl Claude. It is commonly supposed that Earl Patrick built the Chapel at the Revolution period as a protest against the new form of Church government then established, but this belief is far from being correct as the Chapel was instituted and consecrated before the Revolution, although in the same year, and in erecting it the Earl had no sentiment of bitterness whatever, but was purely guided by his own personal and devout desire to raise for himself and his family an altar, where he could worship in private, and give expression to his natural feelings of piety and reverence.
Leaving the Chapel by the altar door we cross a passage and enter the billiard-room, formerly the drawing-room. Old tapestry, representing scenes in the life of Nebuchadnezzar, is displayed on the wall
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on one side of the room. Three examples only of this tapestry are known to exist. A replica is at Knole in Kent. This room is modern, and its
(Here, a) PLAN OF GLAMIS CASTLE
by MacGibbon and Ross.
proportions are large and lofty. It is fifty feet in length. Below the tapestry, bookshelves are arranged, containing an excellent and valuable collection of works,
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ancient and modern. A copy of the excessively rare work "The Aberdeen Breviary," compiled by Bishop Elphinston, is in the library. There are only three copies in existence. Several interesting portraits adorn the walls, including a curious one of Earl Patrick in a Roman dress. The fireplace is a splendid one, brought from the old house of Gitside at Durham.
From the billiard-room we retrace our steps, and crossing the banqueting hall and ascending the great staircase in the tower, we come to a passage which leads among others to the room that Sir Walter Scott occupied when he spent the night at Glamis. The furniture and furnishings of this chamber remain as they were in the time of Scott. The room is irregular in shape, and rather dimly lighted. The old four-poster Elizabethan bed, with its faded tartan hangings, is suggestive, and the general aspect of the interior confirms the sentiments expressed by Sir Walter regarding the memorable occasion of his visit.
Higher up in the tower is situated the room occupied by Prince James, "the Chevalier de St. George," when he passed a night at the Castle in 1716. The old bed he occupied and another similar to it which had been purchased by Earl Patrick, and the account of which is still in the Charter Room, were formerly in an adjoining room. The beds were four-posters and elegantly upholstered, the hangings being of rich embossed velvet and silk. They were similar in design to the well-known bed of Queen Mary at Holyrood. As already mentioned
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an exact copy of the Chevalier's bed has been made by the Countess of Strathmore. This bed may be seen in another room in the great tower.
The height of the great central tower is about one hundred feet, and a magnificent prospect may be viewed from the open promenade at the top. The whole of Strathmore lies stretched beneath. The Sidlaws on the south, and the Grampians on the north, form a bold and impressive background, while rich fertile fields and gently sloping meadows and plantations are seen as far as the eye can reach, towards Perthshire. The towns of Forfar and Kirriemuir, with their towers and smoking chimneys, stand out clear in a setting of green and gold.
"And in the glack of yonder glen
The wild woods wave in Airlie Den."
The whole scene is at once restful and inspiring. The mental picture duly completed, the visitor descends the long staircase, noting that there are eighty six great steps of the whole one hundred and forty three, by which no less than five people can descend abreast, and at last finds himself somewhat unexpectedly at the front door.
Before leaving the interior a visit might be paid to the kitchens, both old and new. The old one is a stone vaulted room in the basement, with an immense arched chimney, and only one loophole to give it light. The new kitchen is large and commodious fifty feet long, lofty, and well lighted. Leaving the Castle by the main door we give a passing glance at the old windows with their antique iron gratings, and crossing the path, we approach
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the great sun-dial on the lawn. This dial has been classed with those of the facet-head type, as it has their distinguishing feature in a very pronounced form. It may be regarded as certainly one of the finest monumental dials in Scotland, befitting the majestic Castle beside which it stands. It consists of an octagonal base on which there are four rampant lions, each holding a dial in his fore-paws. The dial held by the lion facing the south is elliptic in shape, and measures nineteen inches by fourteen inches; the north one is round, and measures sixteen inches in diameter. The west one is rectangular, and measures fifteen-and-a-half inches high by thirteen-and-a-half inches wide; the east one is thirteen-and-a-half inches square. Between the lions there are twisted pillars with carving in the hollows, which support a canopy from which a carved neck rises up bearing the sphere-facetted globe, the facets of which are arranged in three tiers. The dimensions of the structure are: - Height from ground to platform on which lions stand, three feet seven inches; height of lions, five feet two inches; the cornice above them is twelve inches thick; from top of cornice to under side of facetted dials, three feet three-and-a-half inches high; the height of the facet-head is about three feet three-and-a-half inches, and it contains twenty-four facets, each facet containing three or four dials - eighty-four in all. The Earl's coronet, supported by four carved scrolls, is about four feet nine inches high. The total height of the dial from ground to top of coronet is thus twenty-one feet three inches. Behind the lions, in
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the centre of the structure, there is an octagonal pillar twelve inches thick, the width of the lower step at the ground level is ten feet ten inches, and the width of the base of the structure at the level of the top of the second step is five feet four inches.1 The upper part of the dial resembles a pineapple in appearance. The dial was erected by Earl Patrick some time between 1671 and 1689. It is interesting, to note that this famous sun-dial has been set - no doubt by careful calculation - on a spot exactly three degrees west of the meridian of Greenwich. True local time there is therefore twelve minutes later than Greenwich time.
"There is in the garden a fine dyal, and there is a designe for a fountain in the boulin green." "Another of the gates is adorned with two gladiators." 2 The fountain has disappeared; the gladiators still adorn the gate which was removed and now guards the entrance to the north avenue. The local tradition is, that the naked gladiators with hands outstretched signified defiance of Argyll, during whose rebellion Earl Patrick was commissioned to provide stores for the troops that had been called out to suppress it. In the court there formerly were four leaden statues on pedestals: - James VI. in his royal robe, Charles I. in his spurs and sword, Charles II. in a Roman dress, and James II. as at Whitehall. When the court was demolished the statues disappeared, but two of them, those of
1. "Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries," vol.xii., p.161.
2. "Glamis Book of Record." The "Archers' Stones" are situated in this neighbourhood. They mark what was the "Bow Butts," or place where the pastime of archery was practised in former days.
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James VI. and Charles I, together with a leaden Venus, were found in recent times sadly mutilated
(Here a sketch of) THE DUTCH GARDEN,
from Sketch by Mrs. Stirton.
in one of the vaulted cellars of the basement. They have been repaired and set upon pedestals, the two
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Kings at the foot of the avenue in front of the Castle, and the Venus in one of the shrubberies.
Gardens and vineries at some distance from the Castle, and on the banks of the River Dean, were made by the late Earl and Countess many years ago, and more recently at the side of the east wing a sunk or Dutch garden was laid out. Certain features in the wall which encloses it on three sides resemble those of the famous walled garden at Edzell Castle. In the centre is a fountain, with a beautiful bronze figure of Mercury upon a stone pedestal. On the lawn in front of this garden stand three splendid yew trees said to be three hundred years old.
In 1907 1910 a portion of the shrubbery on the other side of the path beyond the sunk garden was formed into a beautiful autumn garden by the present Earl and Countess. The work has been carried out entirely by Glamis workmen, who have well upheld the traditional reputation for ability of the craftsmen of the parish. In planning the details the Countess took a special and active interest, and the success of the undertaking has been in large measure due to her help and guidance.
The garden is an oblong, nearly two acres in extent, and enclosed by a yew hedge which has now grown to a great size and forms a complete enclosing wall or screen to the garden. Along one side is a fine herbaceous border, while on the other and corresponding one is a terrace with gazebos or summer houses of stone at each end. These have high, almost conical roofs, and corbels of machicolated work, and from both of them a pleasing view
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of the interior can be obtained. The general plan of the garden is strictly formal, in keeping with the style of the period, when the Castle and policies were remodelled by Earl Patrick. In the centre of the herbaceous border there is a large stone basin lined with blue mosaics, in the middle of which a fountain plays, while on the terrace opposite is a raised stone seat, displaying on the back the crest of the Lyon family, and approached by a broad flight of steps. The beautifully carved stone vases, the wrought iron gateways, the quaint looking wooden seats, all were made by local men, and the garden is consequently not only "a place of all delights," but a standing memorial of the artistic skill and ingenuity of those who fashioned it. A recording tablet of stone, also made locally, has been placed on the wall in one of the gazebos. Beneath the monograms of the Earl and Countess the following inscription appears: -
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Such then, in brief outline, is the story of Glamis old Castle, a story of change and chance, of hope and despair, of light and shadow, yet, withal of progress. What a message its hoary walls tell out day by day! So long as poetry, romance, religion, have a place in Scottish life and character, the Castle of dim memories, of secrets and haunting shadows, crowned with the beauty and dignity of years, will win men's hearts by a mysterious fascination, and stir them to their very depths.
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THE EARLY CHURCH OF GLAMIS
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THE EARLY CHURCH OF GLAMIS.
"In the antique of bow and spear,
And feudal rapine, clothed with iron mail,
Came ministers of peace, intent to rear
The Mother Church in yon sequestered vale."
Wordsworth.
History is silent regarding the parish of Glamis until the beginning of the eighth century, when the figure of the Celtic Saint Fergus looms through the darkness and obscurity of those early days, and, although much that is legendary and mythical is associated with his person and work, still there can be no doubt that he did actually exist, and exercised an influence for good among the rude aborigines of the district. The story of St. Fergus, like those of so many of the early Scottish Celtic Saints, became garbled in later medieval times. It was the practice of the Church of Rome in those days to give a Roman or Papal colouring to all Christian work or activity which had been carried on at a time previous to the Roman supremacy. This was notably the case in Scotland. The reason for such action on the part of Rome was obvious. Her power
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became magnified in the eyes of the people. The more ancient her claim to authority the greater was the reverence paid to her. A Roman dressing was given to all ancient Celtic traditions, and the holy places which were the scene of noble Christian effort on the part of the followers of St. Ninian, St. Kentigern, or St. Columba, and of lesser saints such as St. Fergus, were taken possession of by the emissaries of Rome, whose business it was to impress upon the people how thoroughly Roman in sympathy those high minded, self sacrificing Celtic saints were. The old traditions of the Celtic saints were changed and garbled to suit Roman ambitions. Stories were introduced of missions to Rome, with wondrous miraculous interventions and interpositions, and a credulous public imbued with the proverbial religious superstition of the Celt proved only too ready to believe and appreciate what appealed to the sense of awe and mystery. The prestige of Rome thus rapidly advanced, until gradually the belief became universal that all early Christian work in Scotland was the result of Roman activity and zeal. At the same time we must not forget that the Church of Rome carried aloft the torch of Christianity through all the medieval time, with its light and shade, and we, to day, have inherited the blessing.
Fergus, or Fergusianus, according to the legend, was for many years a bishop in Ireland in the eighth century, and then came to the confines of Strogeth, in Perthshire, where he founded three churches.1
1. The three churches were those of Strogeth, Blackford, and Dolpatrick.
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Thence he went to Caithness, where for some time he occupied himself in converting the barbarous people. After that he visited Buchan, resting in a place called Lungley, where he built a basilica, dedicated to himself. Then he came to Glamis, where he consecrated a tabernacle to the God of Jacob, and where he died, full of years. His bones were afterwards enshrined in a tomb of marble and his head taken with all due honour to the monastery of Scone, where many miracles were performed. At Strogeth in Strathearn, as mentioned above, and in the immediate neighbourhood, are three churches dedicated to St. Patrick, and which were founded by St. Fergus, which would seem to show that the founder was a follower of St. Patrick. In Caithness, the churches of Wick and Halkirk are dedicated to St. Fergus. In Buchan, the village called in the legend Lungley, is now named St. Fergus, and at Glamis we have his cave and well.
The well is situated in the Den of Glamis, beneath a bank which is half hidden by shrubs and trees, the spreading branches of which well nigh touch the surface of the Glamis Burn, the "never, for ever" unceasing murmur of which falls upon the ears like a low strain of solemn music. Turning to the left, a little grotto is reached, the rocky sides of which shelters a well of clear water, which rises almost immediately from the soil beneath, and has formed for itself a natural cavity or basin, the sides of which are now overhung with sedge and lichen. This is the well of the saint who lived and died at Glamis, and who, tradition avers, baptised the earliest
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converts to Christianity in Strathmore in this well. The cave in which the saint lived was situated beside the well, and old people in the parish used to tell the writer when he went first to Glamis, that they remembered seeing it. It disappeared when renewed operations were instituted at the lead mine in the vicinity. As we stand by the brink of the little pool, we confess to a feeling of satisfaction that this relic of early days, small though it is, has been allowed to survive the centuries of ecclesiastical strife and struggle, untouched by the hand of the vandal. We cannot but feel thankful that this link with the old Celtic Church still remains, to assure us of the continuity of our faith, the unity of spirit amid change and chance which has been the leading power and force in moulding and developing our Scottish National Church.
The environment of the well is in keeping with its sacred associations. The Den of Glamis is a sequestered retreat where "the idle may be tempted to become studious and the studious to grow idle; where the grave may find matters to make them gay, and the gay subjects for gravity," where the unfettered loveliness of wood and shrub and stream seems to unite with the "gloomy grandeur of crags, knolls and mounds, confusedly hurled" to present a scene of quaint as well as natural beauty, that in summer and autumn is "surpassing fair." On the summit of the bank we get a glimpse of the tower of the old ivy covered church, around which countless generations "sleep the sleep that knows not breaking," the wimpling burn singing their endless
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lullaby.1 In front, a rustic bridge leads to a winding path which follows the burn all the way down until it meets the "Dowie Dean," close by the old castle. Above us, but not in sight, stands the Manse in its old garden, surrounded by a stretch of swelling lawn, enclosed and guarded from the wintry winds by evergreen hedges and majestic old trees. One is glad to find the ancient stone with the Celtic cross engraved, carrying the mind back to mysterious days with their wealth of tradition and legend, still standing in front of the Manse. The scene is suggestive in its solemn impressiveness, and casts a shade of melancholy not unpleasing over the mind. The spirit of the ages indeed is here. It is the "genius loci."
The statement that the head of St. Fergus was preserved at Scone is confirmed by entries in the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland of payments by King James IV. for the repair of the silver case for it: -
The King, accompanied by Pate Sinclair, the Squire of Cleish, Alexander Law and Willie Strang, falconers, the four Italian minstrels and the "More Taubroner," Andrew Stewart, the Duke of Albany's son, and others set out from Dunfermline upon his usual autumn pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Duthus at Tain, on 11th October 1504. On reaching Perth (St. Johnstoun), the King made gifts of 11 shillings
1. The old churchyard of Glamis is peculiarly rich in epitaphs in doggerel rhyme. These were composed chiefly by Mr. Robert Smith, Schoolmaster in Glamis, in the first half of the eighteenth century. He is known to fame as author of a metrical version of the Shorter Catechism, published in 1729.
to the "Gray Freris of Sanct Johnestoun," of 13 shillings to the "preistis there," and of 28 shillings to the "Blak Freres and Quhit Freris there." He also got his hat mended in Perth and bought a new pair of gloves as witness - "Item, To Thomas Boswell to by taffeti to the Kingis hat in Sanct Johnstoun . . . xixs." "Item, to ane man brocht gluffis to the King in Sanct Johnestoun be the Kingis command . . . ixs." The King then visited Scone - "Item, to the masons of Scone, in drink silver be the Kingis command . . ." At the same time he made an offering of 14s. for the repair of the silver case containing St. Fergus's head: "Item, to the Kingis offerand to Sanct Fergus hede, in Scone . . . xiiijs." Again in 1506 we find that on 28th September the King made a similar offering: "Item, the xxvij day of September, to the Kingis offerand to Sanct Fergus hede in Scone . . . xviijs." (18 shillings).
Reviewing the legend in the light of the contemporary evidence, we are forced to the conclusion that there were several saints of the name of Fergus, and that the life experiences of these various saints have been all mixed up and applied to the Fergus of Glamis, according to the fashion of the Roman Church, of a later time, and for reasons of her own.
What happened probably is this: The Abbey of Scone, which was situated in the chief seat of the kingdom, and which was founded in the Celtic period, and, after the conversion of the Pictish King Nechtan to Rome in 710 A.D., was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, became in later Roman times previous
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to 1488, singularly destitute of relics of old saints. The monks felt that the Abbey was behind its contemporaries in this respect. They had heard of the grave of St. Fergus at Glamis. They rifled it. The head went to Scone and an arm to Aberdeen. The scribe, either of Scone or Aberdeen, was called upon, after the fashion of the time, to write up an account of St. Fergus to justify the new cultus of his relics. Probably the scribe came from Aberdeen, because he designated the Saint "Fergusianus" instead of "Fergus" or "Feargie," his colloquial name in Angus. Now "Fergusain" (Fergan), is the name in the eighth century list of one of St. Donnan's disciples. He went with St. Donnan to "Cathania" (Sutherland and Caithness) and apparently visited Halkirk (the old cathedral seat), where he has been confused with an earlier Fergus who visited Caithness (including Halkirk and Wick). The names of these men are distinct colloquially. One is "Fergan" and the other "Fergus." How did the scribe get hold of the name "Fergusian" and impose it on "Fergus" or "Feargie" of Angus?
The Abbots of Scone, from the twelfth century, owned the Church of Kildonan. They visited it and served it with Vicars from Scone. Fergusian was commemorated here and in the vicinity. The scribe of the cultus sketch collected items about all the Fergus Saints he had heard of, North and South, and slumped them under the name of Fergusianus, and imposed this name as an alternative for Fergus of Glamis. This is how the legend of Fergusianus was constructed and imposed upon the Saint of
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Glamis. One of the keys to understanding, the position and work of Fergus of Glamis is the correct reading of the inscription on the Drosten stone at St. Vigeans, near Arbroath.1 Some legal "idiot" in Angus has recently been taking a "rise" out of historians and antiquarians about this inscription, and, meanwhile, most people in consequence are shying clear of it. In the judgment of the writer the inscription on the Drosten stone is not only genuine, but carved by a Pictish Celt who was used to the minuscule script of the time in the scripture manuscripts. The only defensible reading is that of Mr. Macrae given on page 333, vol. XLIII., of the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland" - (Stone of) Drosten (a genitive) is undoubted. "Elt Forcus" is also indisputable. Forcus is not a genitive and the words are old Pictish for Pater Fergus - "His foster father was Fergus." This is just the position that Drosten of St. Vigeans and Glen Esk might have occupied in relation to St. Fergus of Glamis. The association marks out what Fergus of Glamis certainly was, from the tradition of his establishment, being the head of a little Celtic "Muinntir" or community, teaching Celtic clerics, the people around him, and training others to carry on his work.
In Adam King's Calendar, the Saint of Glamis is entered as having lived "under King Conran." There was no such king either of the Pictish federation
1. The inscription in full on the Drosten stone is as follows: -
"Drosten: ipe Voret Elt Forcus." The parents of Drosten of Angus were known to have been "noble" and he was given up to be "fostered."
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or of the Dalriad Scots. This was simply a device of the later church to appropriate Brito-Pictish Saints. His date is griven as "505 A.D.," which belongs to the earlier St. Fergus of Buchan and Caithness. Such a date is of course denied by the stone at Glamis, apart from historical considerations.
The Celtic stones at St. Vigeans and Glamis speak for themselves by their markings and symbols - they belong to the same period Ninth or early Tenth century when the interlaced work, as executed on the crosses of the stones at the Manse of Glamis, at Cossins and at Thornton in Glamis, and on the Drosten stone and fragments of others at St. Vigeans, was peculiarly rich and involved, the three cusps shown at the junctions of the arms of the cross on the Manse stone being a unique feature. The symbols incised and in relief engraved upon the slabs also belong to that class which is only seen upon Celtic stones in the North East of Scotland,1 displaying not only the Byzantine character (suggesting, as it does, the influence of the Greek
1. Some of these symbols were probably suggested by one of the "Divine Bestiaries" works which were common and popular modes of moral and religious symbolism from the sixth to the twelfth centuries. When the Bestiary informs us that the centaur is the man-animal and represents the warfare between the spirit and the flesh, and that the osprey, which eats the good fish, is the man of pure and holy life feeding on the Son of God, we perceive how the one (centaur) was fitly introduced or, the stone at Glamis Manse and the other (osprey) on the stone at St. Vigeans. The serpent on the stone at Glamis Manse, which is of the pictorial convoluted kind without the rod, as it appears on many others, is in such a position and association as would seem to imply that it is used as a symbol and not as a mere ornament. The stag in the Bestiary symbolised the soul thirsting for the Water of Life - "As pants the hart for water brooks." Hence the stag on the Glamis Manse stone. These "Divine Bestiaries" are found in various forms and in different languages. Copies of them, in prose and verse, illustrated with quaint and curious drawings, are preserved in various libraries on the Continent. The texts are mostly in Latin and old French.
The fish which is incised on the obverse of the Glamis Manse stone is a very early Christian symbol. In the days or the persecutions under Nero, the Roman Emperor, it was a secret sign between Christians. When a Christian met a Christian he drew a rough outline of a fish with his staff in the roadway. Only a Christian could understand it. The word "Fi |