The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-11-26
Strange Stories Of the Supernatural in
Modern Life.


Modern Life.
The hereditary death summons of the
Ogilvies, the beating of the ghostly
drum, was heard sounding through the
corridors of Airlie Castle. in Forfarshire,
Just before the death the other day of
the ninth Earl of Airlie, 1000 miles
away in Colorado. No less grave and
intelligent a person than the late DR..
Norman Mcleod lends the weight of
his testimony to the occurrence of this
manifestation some thirty years ago,
Just before the death of the late Earl's
father and predecessor in the title.
Scotland, the land of fell and flood, is
full of such superstitions as this of the
drumming boyle of the Ogilvies. The
approaching death of a Bruce is an
nounced by the specter of a woman in
white, which appears to the doomed
scion of that ancient and once royal
house. The late Earl of Elgin, man
Of an eminently sound and robust char
acter, undoubtedly believed himself to
have been warned in this way, and was
profoundly affected by the vision. The
same thing is stated of his brother,
Gen. Robert Bruce, who accompanied
the Prince of Wales on his visit to this
R3-- caJ. Nor are such omens
confined to Scotland. The white woman
the b0UeHHGllorns went shrieking
iHouga the SChloss at Berlin on the
T2 %; n Death Of the practical and
nbenefnE Nr4 TX the Great, and
~ laay ger past the spirit of
ae NeH'ay seen and heard
w5epiag ar aiming herself be-
tue th death ot person of distinc-
IN belonging to that family" A like
tip partition haunts the castle of one of
abe ONeills of Ireland-in the shape of
fair, pale woman, clad in the ancient
Irish dress, and with ruddy golden, dis
heveled hair, the injured ghost of the
daughter of the people of whom the
chief that married her ridded himself by
drowning her in the castle moat. The
Benedictine nun of the Middletons, the
twin owls which perch at midnight on
the battlement of Wardour Castle,
foretelling the death of Arundel Of
futters about the death-beds of the
Oxenhams of Devonshire; the mystic
sturgeon which forces itself up the cur,
rent of the Trent to call one of the Cliff.
tons of Clifton into the unknown world,
and the visionary A'unk of an unreal
oak which floats at dawn in the lake OF
Brereton Hall when Brereton is about
to die-these are all familiar to the
lovers of the might side of nature
That such superstitions can grow ir
other soil than that of ancient institu
tions and the hereditary pride of race
we all know. The tale of the double
reflection seen by Abraham Lincoln in
his mirror, and of the ghostly warning
which he took from that phenomenon,
is familiar. But one of the stranges'
and most inexpiicable stories of the SUI,
pernatural in mo1ern life is that of the
mystery of Glamis. CLAIMS Castle.
which stands, like Airlie Castle, in For,
farshire, is one of the stateliest and, at
the same time, one of the weirdest and
most imposing homes of the Scottish
nobility. 1t is of such vast extent that
when the first Pretender, "James ILL.,
went there. in 1715, to join the fifth
Earl of Strathmore, who marched
then to die under the standard of the
Stuarts at Sheriffmuir, eighty bedrooms
were prepared for the Prince and his
retinue. The castle has been modern
lied, in part to make it superb resi-
dence, but it retains most of its early
feudal features and is full of strange
passage-ways, hidden chambers, stairs
that lead one knows not VIII ither, and
antique tapestries alive with grim fan
tastic shapes. For 500 years it has been
the home of the old Scottish race of the
Lyons, created Barons of CLAIMS in
1445, Earls of Kinghorne in 1906 and
Earls of Strathmore in 1877. What the
mystery of CLAIMS is no one knows, or
ever has known, save the master of
Glamis for the time being and his eldest
son and heir, to whom he is bound to
communicate it when thai son and heir
attains his majority. The present Earl
of Strathmore and Kinghorne is now in
his ffty-seventh year. Five years ago,
in 1876, his son and heir, Lord CLAIMS,
came of age. Being then Lieutenant
in the Life Guards, he promised several
of his companions at a dinner OF the
Guards Club. Just before he went down
to keep his birthday at Glamis Castle,
that on his return he would tell them
all about the famous =" mystery" He
went, and when he returned the first
of his friends who met and claimed the
fulfillment of his hasty promise was so
received that the matter was never
mooted again. London Standard.
The Humorous British Tramp.