married the golden-haired beauty, whom he had reft, as if she had been
a Sabine maid, from her home; and he forgave the missing joint in view
of her fortune. Another of the romantic incidents in the life of this
Sir John Campbell is narrated in the article on Castle Duart, within
this volume.
The system of family feuds was then in full force, and the absolute
obedience with which the clansmen executed the commands of their Chiefs
perpetuated these hereditary quarrels. There were not those wanting who
whispered that the Argyll family secretly encouraged the disaffection
of the Isles that they might increase their own possessions through the
folly of their dupes. The position which the Earl occupied as Sheriff
of Argyll and Justice-General of Scotland gave him a powerful hold
over the ignorant and lawless tribes in his own neighbourhood. The
third Earl died in March 1529, having married a daughter of the Earl of
Huntly, the leader of the Catholics in the north; but Argyll’s son, the
fourth Earl, was the first prominent Scottish nobleman who supported
the Protestant religion. Two of his sons succeeded to the Earldom.
Archibald became fifth Earl, and was an ardent supporter of Mary, Queen
of Scots, and even commanded a section of her army at Langside. Though
twice married, he left no issue, and was succeeded by his half-brother,
Colin, sixth Earl, who had not a very distinguished career.
It is not possible within reasonable space to give details of the
nobles of Argyll up till the present day; so a brief notice is all
that is necessary, as their lives may be read in the national history
of Scotland. Archibald, the seventh Earl, served as an officer in the
Spanish Army of Philip III. when the States of Holland were captured.
Archibald, eighth Earl, was a very notable figure in Scottish affairs
during the seventeenth century. He was Commander-in-Chief of the
Covenanters. In 1641 he had been raised in the Peerage by Charles I.
to the rank of Marquess of Argyll; but in 1645 he was defeated by
his valiant rival, the great Marquess of Montrose, at the battles of
Inverlochy and Kilsyth. His insincerity was shown when at Charles II.’s
Coronation in January 1650-51 at Scone, he placed the Crown on the
King’s head, and shortly afterwards he assisted at the Proclamation of
Cromwell as Protector in Scotland. When Charles II. was restored to the
throne in 1660 Argyll went to London thinking to ingratiate himself
with the King; but he was sternly repulsed, accused of treason, tried,
and executed at Edinburgh in May 1661.
Archibald, ninth Earl of Argyll, son of the foregoing nobleman, had a
similar fate. The original title and estates had been restored to him,
but he was of a turbulent nature, and, having resisted the Test Act,
he was tried for treason, and condemned to death in 1681, the date
being left to the King’s discretion. Argyll was imprisoned in Edinburgh
Castle, from which place he escaped. Returning to this country, he
endeavoured to organize a rebellion in favour of the Duke of Monmouth,
but failed in the project, was captured and executed without another
trial upon the decision of 1681 at Edinburgh in 1685, his title and
estates being forfeited. His eldest son, Archibald, succeeded, and had
his father’s forfeited estates and titles restored, thus becoming tenth
Earl of Argyll.
With this Archibald the fortunes of the Campbell family revived. He
joined the Convention of Estates and took part in the movement in
favour of William of Orange and Mary, joining that Prince at the Hague,
and bringing him to England as William III. For his numerous services
he was created first Duke of Argyll in 1701, and thus introduced the
ducal title. His son and successor, John, second Duke of Argyll, was
the famous statesman and military leader whom Pope thus eulogized:--
“Argyll, the State’s whole thunder born to wield,
And shake alike the Senate and the Field.”
It was the second Duke who arrested the Jacobite Rising of 1715
by his famous victory at Sheriffmuir, after which he was appointed
Field-Marshal of all His Majesty’s Forces. He died in 1743, and as
he had no male issue he was succeeded by his brother, Archibald,
who became third Duke of Argyll, and was Lord Justice-General, Lord
Clerk Register, and Keeper of the Great Seal. He also died without
male succession, and the fourth Duke of Argyll was the cousin of his
predecessor. It is not necessary to trace the family further in detail,
save in this condensed manner:--
John, fourth Duke, cousin of third Duke, died 1722.
John, fifth Duke, son, 1723-1806.
George William, sixth Duke, son, 1766-1839, no issue.
John Douglas, seventh Duke, brother, 1777-1847.
George Douglas, eighth Duke, son, 1823-1900.
John Douglas Sutherland, ninth Duke, son, 1845-1914, known for many
years as Marquess of Lorne before he succeeded his father in 1900; was
married in 1871 to H.R.H. Princess Louise-Caroline-Alberta, daughter
of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, who survived the Duke of Argyll. As
there was no family, he was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Niall Diarmid
Campbell, tenth Duke of Argyll, born 1872, son of Lord Archibald
Campbell, second son of the eighth Duke, whose death in 1913 made Sir
Niall in 1914 nearest in succession to the title.
The varied story of the Campbells of Argyll and of their connection
with Inveraray Castle is here completed, and it will be seen that
nearly all of them were high-souled Scottish patriots. And the song of
Argyll has ever been like this:--
“’Tis not for the land of my sires to give birth
Unto bosoms that shrink when their trial is nigh;
Away! we will bear over ocean and earth
A name and a spirit that never will die.
My course to the winds, to the stars I resign;
But my soul’s quenchless fire, O my country, is thine.”
XXI
FOWLIS CASTLE--CARSE OF GOWRIE
Each of the great rivers of Scotland--Clyde, Tweed, Forth, Tay, Dee and
Spey--has special characteristics and attractions. The Clyde takes its
rise in an agricultural district, but completes its course by passing
through a dense population. The Tweed is a placid river, flowing
gently amid a pastoral country, and past castles full of historical
associations. It seems ever to be murmuring:--
“With many a curve my banks I fret,
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow-weed and mallow.”
The Forth, with numerous curves and windings, though never a turbulent
stream, is replete with fragments of Scottish history, from Stirling
even to Edinburgh and Leith. The Dee, rising in the distant Grampians,
may thus be appropriately described:--
“I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern
To bicker down a valley.
By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.”
It begins near the Royal Castle of Balmoral, and terminates in the
Royal City of Aberdeen. The Spey is reckoned the most rapid river in
Scotland, and passes through typical Highland scenery:--
“I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.”
The valley of the Tay, from the source of that river in the west to its
debouchment at Dundee, in peculiarly rich in historic memoirs. Taking
its rise in the remote borderland between Perthshire and Argyllshire,
the Tay flows through a country which exhibits many of the varieties of
Scottish river-scenery, from the wild and wooded glen to the fair and
fertile Carse, and displays within its course the mountain torrent, the
silent tarn, the tugged cascade, and the broad-bosomed, silvery loch.
As its pathway lies through the very heart of Scotland, and amid some
of its grandest scenes, the multitudinous contrasts which it thus shows
are not inexplicable.
The rising hill-lands of Perthshire rapidly encroach upon the magnitude
of the Grampians; and though the country is so broken up by plateaus
that it does not seem extremely elevated, still the peaks which are
thrown up here and there to a respectable altitude indicate with
sufficient clearness that the locality is in the immediate vicinity
of a vast mountain range. The volcanic forces whose energy formed the
Grampians years ago are visible here also; and the scattered bens of
Perthshire, thus heaved up by Titanic skill, have exercised a powerful
influence in the development of Scottish landscape.
The hills have drawn towards them the thunderous clouds, whose
intercepted showers have become the sources of countless
mountain-streams. The valleys have collected these into vast lochs,
themselves the reservoirs of mighty rivers, which dash impetuously
through their rocky beds to join the fathomless sea. And thus, by
Strath and Carse, by Clachan and City, the Tay pursues its majestic
course towards the ocean. Stretching over half the breadth of Scotland,
the stream leaves the uplands and moors of Western Perthshire, and,
winding its devious way through gloomy shades and by sunny leas,
finally becomes a navigable river, flowing through a pastoral country
on its way to the North Sea. The lower reaches of the Tay being not
only richer but also more accessible than the remoter portions of the
valley, are therefore intimately connected with the history of the
country, and even now exhibit traces of the fierce contests which
took place in the locality betwixt the myriad invaders of the soil
and the aborigines. Betwixt the City of Perth and the sea-coast the
whole stretch of country on each side of the Tay is dotted with Towers
and Keeps, with ancient fortresses and modern mansions, which show
unmistakably the progress of civilization in Scotland.
No Tayside family has been longer or more honourably connected with
the Gowrie district than that of the Grays of Gray. The lands they
possessed were in themselves fertile, and by their proximity to the
town of Dundee a ready market was found for their agricultural produce.
Hence their importance to the locality may be understood. Three seats
are now associated with their name--Fowlis Castle, Gray House, and
Kinfauns Castle, the first of these being the most ancient.
The Castle of Fowlis occupies a commanding position upon an elevated
table-land at some distance to the north of the river bank, and is
skilfully placed so as to resist an attack. The approach from the
roadway near which it is situated might easily be defended, and the
steep ascents of the Den of Fowlis on the one side, and the brae on the
other, would render assault from these quarters extremely difficult.
With such recommendations in times of war, it was not without its
attractions in “piping times of peace.” The view from the upper windows
is very lovely. Looking southward the spectator has presented to his
vision a succession of fertile fields, which descend from the altitude
on which the Castle is erected by easy gradations until they reach the
brink of the river. Far beyond the silvery stream, which extends its
broad expanse at this point to the greatest width (nearly three miles)
of all its course, the dim outline of the Fifeshire coast may be seen,
from the ancient spires of St Andrews to the still more ancient Tower
of Abernethy, with all the intermediate monuments of progress, the
ruins of Lindores Abbey, and the palatial mansions of Newport-on-Tay.
Westward on the north side of the river lies the famous Carse
of Gowrie, extending its green and fruitful glade far as the
eye can reach, and dotted with innumerable points of historic
interest--Invergowrie, Errol, Kinfauns, and many others--which awaken
recollections of Scotland’s days of chivalry. And through the verdant
slopes which line each bank the path of the Tay may be traced by the
gleaming streak of reflected light which glistens in the sunshine
and marks its meanderings. Eastward the towers and spires of the
ancient City of Dundee may be seen, now pleasantly situated upon the
eminences that in former days shut her in from the world, but which the
irresistible tide of progress has brought within her boundaries. The
towering mount which overhangs the burgh, and which Dundonians proudly
denominate “the Law,” stands forth in stern majesty, closing the view
in that direction. Further northward the Sidlaw Hills show their
summits above the rising ground, and around towards the margin of the
Carse the sharply defined range of mountains, of which King’s Seat and
Dunsinnan are the most noticeable peaks, serve to limit the view.
It will be seen that from the spot occupied by Fowlis Castle the deep
valley lying between the spur of the Sidlaw Hills on which it is built,
and the “blue Lomonds” in Fife, which show their faint outlines in the
hazy distance, is quite commanded, and lies like a panorama at the
feet of the beholder. And there are not many spots in Scotland which
exhibit so much richly varied landscape at one glance of the eye. The
woods of Camperdown and the orchards of Errol, the green waving fields
of Gowrie, and the cultivated mounds of Newburgh and Balmerino, the
glistening river, and the mystic and far-distant ocean--
“All form a scene
Where rousing Solitude might love to lift
Her soul above the sphere of earthliness,
Where Silence undisturbed might watch alone.”
Nor need the glamour of the scene be limited only to those portions
of it which are at one view perceptible. By ascending the beautiful
acclivity to the north of the Castle the lovely vale of Strathmartine
may be seen stretching to the very base of the Sidlaws. Beyond the
Lomonds on the south lies the peaceful Loch Leven, the lake of Romance
and Chivalry; and hidden by the range which terminates with the Hill of
Kinnoul, on the western side, the ancient City of Perth sits queen-like
by the rapid-flowing Tay.
Here, in the centre of this scene of surpassing loveliness, fraught
with the memory of noble deeds of daring, the ancient Castle of Fowlis
once reared its turrets. The portion of the Castle still remaining
gives but a very imperfect notion of its former extent. Probably this
only formed one wing, and in an old plan, made in 1696, “the Lady’s
Tower” encloses an internal staircase which runs from basement to
top-rafters, and was on one side of a quadrangular building, the other
erections being designed for the accommodation of the servants. A
carved stone from the Castle was found built into a modern house, and
bearing the date “1640,” which suggests that this portion, at least,
was erected by Andrew, eighth Lord Gray, who succeeded to the title and
estate in 1612, and 1663 was the date of his death. The earlier Castle,
of which nothing now remains, belonged to a much earlier period.
The origin of the name of Fowlis is much disputed. One theory is
that it is derived from the title of a Norman-French knight who had
settled in Kent some time previous to the Conquest in 1066, and who
stoutly resisted the invasion of England by William of Normandy.
Having aroused the vengeance of the Conqueror, he was compelled to
flee to the north; and throwing himself upon the generosity of Malcolm
Ceanmòr, he found his confidence in that monarch was not misplaced. The
Knight of Feuilles (leaves) was welcomed by the King in his Palace of
Hurley-Hawkin, near Fowlis Castle, and Malcolm bestowed upon him the
lands adjoining his own dwelling, which have since borne the name of
the stranger knight. It is more probable that the name is a corruption
of the Gaelic _Foil-es_, signifying a deep valley, such as the Den of
Fowlis.
The fanciful tradition as to King Malcolm’s generosity is directly
contradicted by the genealogy of the Gray family prepared by Sir
Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms. He claims that the family is
descended from a common progenitor of the ducal houses of Suffolk
and Kent, the baronial houses of Gray and Warwick, and the houses of
Dorset, Tankerville, and Stamford. This ancestor, Anschetit de Croy,
one of the companions-in-arms of William the Conqueror, who gave him
large grants of land in the County of Oxford and elsewhere. From this
person there descended Sir Andrew Gray of Chillingham, Northumberland
County, and who had so faithfully aided Robert the Bruce in his claim
for the Crown of Scotland that in 1306 the King conferred upon him the
Manor of Longforgan, Perth County, other lands in Forfarshire, and the
lands of Browfield and Broxmouth, Haddingtonshire. The lands of Fowlis
did not come into the Gray family till the end of the fifteenth century.
The following statements are founded upon veritable documents. In
1180 the church and lands of Fowlis belonged to William of Maule, who
is said to have received them from King David I. as a reward for his
bravery at the Battle of the Standard in 1138. He purposed founding
a family of Maules of Fowlis, but he had no son, and as one of his
daughters married Roger of Mortimer, Sheriff of Perthshire, the estate
and Castle fell to their share. Though so intimately connected with
the history of Gowrie, there are few records found of the family, save
that they were known as Lords of Aberdour, and that the possession of
the Castle of Fowlis descended in direct line for several generations.
It seems probable that the Mortimers were descended from Roger, second
Baron of Wigmore, who aided Edward II. in his flight after Bannockburn,
and received from Edward III. the empty title of Earl of March, which
became extinct with the fifth earl in 1424. The Mortimers of Fowlis
continued till the death of another Roger, who left only one daughter,
Janet, who married Sir Andrew Gray of Broxmouth in 1397, thus bringing
the Grays of Fowlis into existence.
The first of the new race was directly descended from the
companion-in-arms of Robert Bruce already mentioned. He was created a
Lord of Parliament, with the title of Lord Gray of Gray and Fowlis,
1437; by his wife, Janet Mortimer, he had one son and six daughters;
and by his second wife, Elizabeth Buchanan, he had four sons and one
daughter. At his death in 1449-50 he was succeeded by his eldest
son, Andrew, second Lord Gray. This nobleman became a man of mark in
history, as Scotland was then in a perturbed state through the death of
Robert III. in 1406, and the capture of his son James I. in that year,
and his long imprisonment for 18 years in England. While still Master
of Gray during his father’s life-time the second Lord Gray was
chosen as one of the noblemen who were sent as pledges for the ransom
of King James. For three years--1424-1427--he was kept a prisoner in
England. After his return he rose rapidly in the favour of James I.
[Illustration: FOWLIS CASTLE _Valentine & Sons Ltd._]
When Charles VII. of France, whose kingdom had been ravaged by the
English army, sought to form a matrimonial alliance with Scotland for
defensive purposes, he suggested the marriage of the Dauphin with the
Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of James I., the Master of Gray
was sent as one of the Commissioners to effect this union, which took
place in June 1436; and after the death of Charles VII. in 1461 he was
succeeded by the son of this marriage as Louis XI. After his father’s
death in 1449-50 the Master of Gray became Lord Gray, was appointed
Ambassador to England, and in 1452 made a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
After his return to Scotland he was received into the Royal Household,
and obtained a license from James II. on any part of the estate which
he might select. The Castle of Fowlis by this time had become too
small for the accommodation of the numerous Gray family; and Lord Gray
selected a site on the plateau near the river, a little south-west
of the Foulis Castle. The second Lord Gray died in 1469, and it is
likely that he had begun the new Castle before that, but it was not
completed in his time. The successor was his grandson, Alexander, third
Lord Gray, who increased his influence by two judicious marriages,
connecting him with the Keiths, Earls Marischal, and the Earl of
Atholl, and was appointed Justice-General of Scotland. At his death in
1514 he left a numerous family. His eldest son, Patrick, became fourth
Lord Gray, after he had reached the age of manhood.
It was the lot of this Lord Gray to see the completion of the Castle,
probably during his father’s life-time. He had been married to Lady
Jane Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly; and as the Castle had not
then been named, he devised the designation of “Castle Huntly,” which
it still bears. This Castle was sold in 1614 by Andrew Gray, eighth
Lord Gray, to the first Earl of Kinghorne, when the name was changed to
“Castle-Lyon” after that Earl’s family. It remained in the possession
of the Lyons, Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne until 1776, when it
was sold to Mr George Paterson. He was married to the Hon. Anne Gray,
and he resumed the old name of Castle Huntly, bestowed on it by her
ancestors. This splendid baronial pile still (1927) belongs to the
Patersons.
The new Castle Huntly became, of course, the principal residence of
the Lords Gray for a long period, and it is not necessary to deal
with each of them. It is interesting, however, that the desertion
of Fowlis Castle, according to a local current superstition, was
followed by a total change in the policy of successive Lords Gray. It
has been pointed out that loyalty to the reigning monarchy had been
habitual with them, but that was changed shortly before they left the
ancestral Castle. The Lord Gray of the time introduced a system of
double-dealing in public affairs. Though an intimate friend of James
III., he conspired to remove him from the throne; and he took part
with the Prince (afterwards James IV.) at Sauchie Burn, where the King
was assassinated. One of his successors, though a Reformer, sought to
promote the appointment of Cardinal Beaton as Regent after the death of
James V.; but he was not even true to him, for he signed a bond, which
was found in St Andrews Castle, by which Lord Gray bound himself to
hand over certain Scottish Castles to the English invaders under the
Protector Somerset.
The acme of treachery was reached by the Master of Gray, who was
known by that designation till 1609, when he became sixth Baron Gray.
His early years were spent in France during the young Queen Mary’s
residence there, and he was in close touch with the Guises and other
French friends of the Queen. He betrayed Mary’s secrets to the Scottish
Privy Council and the Governor Arran; concluded an agreement with
Elizabeth and James to the exclusion of Mary from the throne, while
acting as Ambassador to England; and formally protested against the
condemnation of Mary, but secretly advised her assassination. He was
exiled from Scotland for impeding the marriage of the King with Anne
of Denmark in 1587, but returned shortly after, and joined with the
traitor Francis Stewart Hepburn, who attempted in 1592 to capture the
King at Falkland. Gray ultimately escaped the punishment of death for
treason, but was exiled to France, where in 1612 he died.