Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-01-15
ombo,om the castle lodge and the cas-

embOSOm the caStle iouBo ~" WIG S~o
tie gate.
Here the person OF sentiment may get
a pleasurabie shock. The Glammis en-
trance is as forbidding as it ought to be.
Imagine a low machicolated building,
sombrcly messed and weather-stsined,
rising in the middle to dark portal OF
stern. undecorated stone, with, for gar
nish. upon either side the figure OF
naked man, life size, standing before
Stone lion, with an arm outstretched
towards the distant hills OF Dnsinane.
From the fashion OF their hair the men
may be ancient Gaels. But whatever
they are Glammis lodgekeeper's wife dis.
likes them. "Such naked looms
remarked the old lady with curl
OF the lip at them. Nor had she any
more respect for the Glammis ghost
when injured about il. 81 dinna be-
lieve in them" she said. Macbeth and
Duncan she dismissed peremptonly as
idle tales excrescences that bad got
foisted upon the castle history like the
lichen upon its stones. Her theory OF
the origin of such legends was SIMPLE.
In olden times men were both stronger
and wickeder than now; they did deeds
we should shrink at aud thought no
thing about them. Glammis was not a
whit more deserving of ghost than any
other old house in the Highlands.
Such treason as this was only to he
met by an abrupt walk away into the
woods towards the castle itself. There
is no show road to Gammis. One winds
up and down in the copses, frightening
fawn or hare from the middle OF the
patti and with the song OF hnnets and
thrushes in the over-arching trees. Lord
Strathmore, when he is here, lives IN
oblivion, uutroubled by the tramp OF
inqustive tourists.
The wood suddenly falls. and then
ends; trout brook is crossed by
bridge, and Glammis Castle is before us,
on a glade of velvety turf, and with FIR
clad hillocks beyond it. And now the
earlier illusion may well revive. The
castle is old though not in its super
structure so very old. Doubtless, how
ever. Macbeth's foundations are still
Lord Strathmore's foundations. And
the two truncated guard-houses which
rise few feet from the lawn, with their
ruins tenderly ivied, take us back at a
plunge some seven or eight centuries.
Modern Glammis is Of the Gothic so
common in French chateaux. A multi
tude of extinguisher turrets soar Mt
different elevations from its blue slate
roofing. and at its Hottest part 1t IS
crowned by dainty cupola, like rus
tic temple of Diana, with chlsclled
balcony of much taste and beauty. The
pink stone of the building is iewelled
with stone escutcheons, inscriptions, and
dates One tower is of 1906 ford
window is marked 1916, and later wing
1899. Here one reads how Patrick,
Lord Glamis, and ID. Anna" his wife
made alterations in such a year, and
how their successor added to them. One
wonders what were Macbeth and his
wife to these good people.
Here, again, | sought for the local
ghost and equally in vain. "Ghost !
bless you, sir, there amt none ." so said
the English groom, who thus a second
time threw me off the trail. | might
search the castle if [ liked. This re-
minds me of the chief characteristic OF
Glammis, no less than of its inhabitants.
The building is stuck on the ground
with q nakedness that is ostentatious.
Tho basement is Rirdled neither by
flower-beds nor shrubs. The stories go
upwards even without very perceptible
buttresses. 1t is as if the castle
tried to boast of its unblemished
reputation. There is nothing hid from
you-I am what you see me. You see
me entirely, and there is nothing wrong
about me I" Similarly with the people
of Glammis. A stranger would suppose
they thought the mere idea of ghost
preposterous. As for a ghost in the con-
crete-that were absurd indeed But are
we to be deceived by such Puritanic al
fectation OF innocence | think not. Not
for nothing were the younger Lisles (the
Strathmore's family name) timOrous OF
spiritual manifestations when boys at
Eton. Indeed, they then confessed to
the family ghost. And not for the mere
pleasure of equlvocatlon did good
farmers dame in the neighborhood talk
low upon the subject, and tell of "A weird
scratching like quill pen upon paper
audible periodically TO the patient and
sympathetic listener. Even as u brave
man will keep bis personal troubles to
himself. so it is no doubt made lmpera-
tive upon the living associates OF AL an
cestral spectre to keep the fact to them
selves.