Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/297

 10 8. X. SEPT. 26, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

241

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1908.

CONTENTS. No. 248.

NOTES :-The Glamis Mystery, 241 Miltoniana, 242 Doclsley's Collection of Poetry, 243 St. Margaret's and St John's, Westminster" Star and Garter Tavern," Pall Mall, 244 Cowper Thornhill's Famous Ride Horseflesh High Court of Liberty, Wellclose Square, 245 Banstea.d : Races and Mutton Newlyn Colony of Artists The Bas- tinado as an English Military Punishment J. H. Short- house on ' John Inglesant ' Sextons : the Bramwell Family Tennyson : " The ringing grooves of change," 246.

^QUERIES : W. H. Riehl in English Garibaldi Railway on the Thames Embankment Leech's Etchings on Steel - Knocking off a Priest's Bonnet Authors of Quotations Wanted The Revolution Society, 247 " Wronghalf " : "Pych": "Targe" Duke of Westminster's Elopement with Miss Child Hannah Maria Jones Gedney Church Parliamentary Applause United States : Social Life, 248 Mistress Rachel How Mortimer Collins W. Bruce in Poland Capt. Barton Augvaldsnaes Church Lans- downe Passage Milton's Songs set to Music R. Weyon Baydon Dean Colet's .Name Pickthall, 249 Monastic Estates King Edwin's Dwarfs, 250.

REPLIES : Flying Machines: " Aviation " Turstin de Wigmore Inferior Clergy : " Sir," 250" Baal-Fires," 251 Don Saltero's Tavern, Chelsea Carnmarth : Lannarth, 252 "Sinews of war " " Cock -foster " Budgee, a Kind of Ape Corbet=Valletort, 253 Jean Paul in English " Pink Saucer "Children at Executions Manor Identi- fication Paulitian Language, 254 Welsh Heraldry- Col. Stepkin and Capt. Backhouse " Hors d'oeuvre" "What you but see," &c. Castle Architecture, 255 Salford : Saltersford : Saltersgate Martin Madan " Half - Baptized," 256 Widow Maurice " Bough -pot "Shadow Shows " Scaramouch " Tyrone Power, 257 Fleet Prison "Meschianza" Ode to Napoleon London Statues French Coat of Arms Erasmus Williams "St. Francis's Moon "Initials for Words, 258.

NOTES ON BOOKS : 'The Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting ' ' The Oxford Thackeray.'

THE GLAMTS MYSTERY.

MANY readers of ' N". & Q. have doubt- less heard of the ' Mystery of Glamis." It was told to the present writer some sixty years ago, when he was a boy, and it made a great impression on him. He heard the legend related quite recently, in nearly the same words. The story was, and is, that In the Castle of Glamis, the celebrated old castle of the Earls of Strathmore, is a secret chamber. In this chamber is confined a monster, who is the rightful heir to the title and property, but who is so unpre- sentable that it is necessary to keep him tDut of sight and out of possession. The secret is supposed to be known to three persons only the Earl of Strathmore, his heir, and the manager of the estate. This terrible secret is said to have a depressing effect on the holder of the title (who, if the legend were exact, would not be in posses- sion lawfully of either title or property) and on his heir.

When the legend of my childhood was recently repeated in my hearing, I ventured to suggest that the Earl of T Strathmore, at

the time I heard the story, was about seventy years of age, and the reputed monster, in order to have a claim superior to his brother's, must have been still older than the one who then bore the title of Earl. As in captivity the monster would have had difficulties in producing a legiti- mate monster to carry on the legend, it was improbable that there could now survive any imprisoned monster whose presence and claim would exercise a depressing effect on the present holder of the title. This view, however, received little support from my audience, the general verdict being that the legend was so well-established and interesting that it was almost impious to attempt to explain it away. It was also advanced, as evidence against my view, that a member of the family had recently stated that the mystery was " the same as ever," and that, therefore, the monster must still exist. Although nearly every one who has ever been to Glamis, and many who have never been there, are generally believed to be able to speak with autho- rity regarding the monster, the family are known to discourage the many embroidered editions of the legend to which the public have held so pertinaciously, and they are in no way responsible for this long- lived myth. . ..-/

On re-reading lately Sir Walter Scott's ' Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,' I came upon a passage, in a letter written in 183Q, which would seem to help to explain the Mystery of Glamis. I send this to ' N. & Q.' at the risk of being impeached for trying to spoil a good legend which has long been popular public property.

It will be borne in mind that, in addition to the monster, the salient points in ,the mystery are the secret chamber, and the secret known to only the holder of the title, his heir, and the third person the family lawyer or manager. Now this is what Sir Walter wrote on the subject nearly eighty years ago :

" I have been myself at two periods of my life, distant from each other, engaged in scenes favour- able to that degree of superstitious awe which my countrymen expressively call being 'eerie.'

"On the first of these occasions I was only nine- teen or twenty years old, when I happened to pass a night in the magnificent old baronial Castle of Glamjs, the hereditary seat of the Earls of Strath- more. The hoary pile contains much in its appear- ance, and in the traditions connected with it, impressive to the imagination. It was the scene of the murder of a Scottish king of great antiquity not indeed the gracious Duncan, with whom the name naturally associates itself, but Malcolm the Second. It contains also a curious monument of the peril of feudal times, being a secret chamber,