Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/223

 MISCELLANEA.

Welton Farmhouse, Blairgowrie.

The curious carving, shown on the accompanying plate, of a smith at work, surmounted by a crown, appears on an old stone-built two-storied house, near the River Ericht, at Blairgowrie, now in the possession of Mrs. Macpherson, of Blairgowrie. It was probably owned for three hundred years by the family of Low. The founder of the family was a blacksmith who excelled all other smiths in the quantity and quality of the work he did, being, it was commonly reported, helped in his trade nightly by the gude-folk. One night watching them, he forgot that he must not speak to them, and in his excitement exclaimed aloud : —

" Well struck, Red Cap ; better still, Blue."

And they replied : —

" Well struck or ill struck, we strike no more for you."

And thereupon vanished and returned no more.

The old stone carving beneath the window of the second floor, and above the door, as seen in the illustration, is fast peeling off from age, and the inscription and date, save for a letter or two, have disappeared entirely. I do not think it has previously been recorded in the history of the locality. Nobody I was acquainted with knew anything of the matter, nor could any one explain the existence of a crown surmounting the figure of the smith. Mr. D. Milne, to whom I owe my illustration, had not previously been employed to record this curious old carved tablet. Folk-Lore readers may be interested in the matter. The date of the house may be about 1570.

E. K. Pearce.