The Washington times., 1922-11-26
ANCIENT CURSE OF GLENCOE. :
RECALLED BY DIVORCE SUIT

regarding circumstances, ignoring
the evidences Of friendship that
had prevailed. struck the blow
which he had been sent to de.
liver. They killed Macdonald in
cold blood ere he knew what fate
faced him. They slew his soldiers,
as they stood unarmed. They
burned every house; they laid
waste every field. until the Valley
Of Glencoe was 4 desolate sham.
bles.
So over the smoking embers OF
their homes, over the bodies Of the
Highland women and children. over
the desolation that had been a few
days before the pride Of MacDon-
AIDS heart the curse Of Glencoe
was flung. Who uttered 1t first is
no longer known. save that 1t
was an old woman and the exact
terms of 1t have been made un-
certain through the mists of ira
= dition in the years that have
passed.
Doubtless, 1t was uttered a hun.
dred times, repeated. enlarged,
made more venomous and compre.
hensive. What the clan had suf.
fered, the curse demanded, should
be repeated a hundred fold on
70
As William III had ordered the
massacre, the curse was directed
against him and his house. AS the
Earl of Stair had counter. signed
the order. the curse called for the
destruction Of this line, and
against Campbell, Of Glenlyon, the
imprecation was directed as the
master Of the massacre.
What happened to William III.
and the Earl Of Stair is history.
William had married Mary, the
daughter Of James H.. whom he
succeeded. Mary died in 1894, and
eight years after William was
killed by fall from his horse and
the succession was broken, the
crown passing to Mary's sister.
who became Queen Anne.
As the terms Of the Scottish
imprecation, modified, perhaps, in
tensified more likely, came over
the border. the specifications RAJ
that no successor Of the first
earl should ever possess three
sons. The Earl of Stair, the re-
puted evil genius Of the massacre,
was elevated and honored BY
Queen Anne, and he scoffed n;
the imprecation. To show his
) contempt for It he tied up his
estate 30 that a large part of u
could not be inherited by any
but his own third son, or a third
son of the earl who succeeded
him.
The tenth Earl of Stair was the
first of the line to possess three
sons, and through the years the
original estate set aside for the
first third son Of a ruling earl had
been accommodating and increasing
at interest and compound interest
through the centuries.
THE THIRD SON APPEARS.
The first third son is Col. 4ew
Hamilton Dalrymple, now an aged
man and a confirmed bachelor.
who. lacking the titles, possesses
enough wealth to make the present
Earl Of Stair, his nephew, appear
poverty stricken. So that the first
Earl of Stair, in Withholding tn
mass of wealth for a third son,
simply succeeded in injuring his
own direct heirs by jettisoning Il
fortune.
The father Of the present earl
was frightfully disfigured by be
ing flung from a horse onto the
iron spikes Of fence.
He was sued by his wife for di.
vorce-they were childless-and
he won the divorce. Whereupon,
the divorced lady married tho CO.
respondent he had named and
the correspondent. Lord Menxles.
died soon after.
The second Earl Of Stair mar
ried mysteriousiy the widowed Wis.
countess Primrose. immortalised
In scott's Aunt Margaret's Mir.
ror." The seventh earl. on his
honeymoon with the beautiful
Countess Dyssrt, was forced to
submit to the annulment of the
marriage at the behest of a wem.
an of evil reputation. whom he
had compromised.
bride OF LAMMERMO0R,
The Glencoe Eari's eldest sister.
Janet Dalrympie, was the heroine
of Scett's Bride of Lammer
moor" which was later done into
the opera Lucia" It 10 history.
vouched for by the family annals,
that she was forced to give up
the man Of her choice, Lord Ruth.
erford, to marry a man she detsst.