New-York tribune., 1901-01-20
"A SCOTTISH SUPERSTITION WHICH HAS
ITS LATEST APPLICATION TO AN
AMERICAN WOMAN


present Lady of Fyvie is said to intend found
ing home for old soldiers Of that regiment at
Aberdeen did not die in infancy there appears
no exact reason for in any way connecting his
death with the sinister power of the ancient
Fyvie Weird.
The prophecy supposed, like so MANY other
oracular utterances of the Middle Ages and
with as good reason half of them to have
originated with Thomas the Rhymer runs in
these words:
A stone there is in My Lady's bower
Another is in the Seton Tower
A third is beneath the Water Yeti;
And whies there's that
Never a lady shall thrive in Fyvie
The first of these three fateful stones is no
longer in My Lady'S bower, unless it has been
replaced there within recent years In the days
of the predecessor of Sir Maurice Duff-Gordon.
from whom the castle was leased to it's present
occupants. the weeping stone" as it is called
was kept in common tin wash basin on the
floor of a carpetless lumber room under the tiles.
long dark mark on the floor where the basin
overiowed from time TO time-whenever the
weather happened to- be damp beyond the en-
durance Of even Scottish piece Of rock salt
vndicated the stones title it's popular distinc-
tion although the increase of knowledge about
the properties of sodium chloride had seriously
diminished the preternatural respect to which
for many centuries.
1t may be paradoxicaI that the same scient fc
enlightenment had not diminished the general
belief in the burden of the prophecy, but such
WAS the fact. and probably is even to this day.
The mere removal OF the weeping stone from
My Ladys bower to garret seemed 10
make any difference the effect of the weird
As for the stone in the Seton Tower nobody
| knew where to find that. That which lis be-
I
ing the moat-must remain there until the
foundations Of the castle are dug up to search
for il.
Meanw while, IL any sceptic cares TO scOff at the
legend. the burden OF proof lies with the as
sailant." Let the sceptic search the records Of
Fyvie Parish and show where any Lady Of
Fyvie has borne living child within the castle
| walls Lady in the rhyme is of course. taken
in the sense In which the Rhymer understood it,
the wife of the Laird. In the days before the
Reformation. when the Setons held the barony,
the fef may have passed from father to son.
but since the prophecy written Fyvie drees
its weird. and no heir To il is born within it's
grim walls. Moreover since it was given by one
of the Earls of Aberdeen to n natural sOn-the
said earIs being popularity regarded bow o.
meal GordonS." or descendants of men bought
into the clan. when it's ranks had been depleted
in battle. at one boil of meal apiece-Fyvie has
passed in zigzaG succession from uncle to
nephew, from cousin To cousin but never from
father to son.
II Glamis We're destroyed Fyvie would possess
the distinction of being the only feudai castle in
Scotland still thoroughly habtabIe. Many
ancient house and stronghold" as the Highland
term goes. is to bc found in the northern king
dom in fairly good repair. but of these
date back to the strictly feudal times. prior to
the introduction of firearms. except Glams and
FyVl,.. There ruins of feudal castles too.
On which later buildings have been grated but
the old dnnjon keeps of Fyvie and Gamis
they to-day. noors and all. are the same
they were in the days of the first Stuart Kings
ot Scotland. Fyve. meaning, The Lair II
Deer" is Il DELIGHTFULLY."- sheltered nook OF low
land through which the little Ythan trcklcs.
surrounded by more or less lofty ramitications
of tho eastern Grampians. Ii is one of the few
districts where Dr. Johnson might have seen
tree in Scotland if he had cared 10 visit it. for
huge oaks and ashes abound there. and its gar
drns are famed fox their Strawberries. The
! castle is said have been built when Edward
I Ill ruled i'm England chat is. before 131i). Con-
/ scutiently. the walls in which are the three i'll
starred stones and which have outlasted the
nineteenth century ia better repair than many
an old Ncw-York landmark are much more than
fivc hundred years old to-day.