DUKE AND A CASTLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1413, 13 April 1912, Page 14

DUKE AND A CASTLE.

Judgment was given in fhe First Division of the Court of Session, Edinburgh, on February 2", in the appeal by the Duke of Argyll against Lord' Cullen's judgment in the duke's action against Air. Angus John C-ampbell, of DunstaHnagc, Argyllshire, re.-pccting the ownership of the ruined eastlo of Dunsiaffnage. The duke asked the Court to declare that lie was tile proprietor and that Mr. Campbell li ml no title. Lord Cullen found for JLr. Campbell- The Court varied Lord C'ullen's decision by granting the duke a declaration that lie was tho proprietor of the. eastlo, but refused td make a statement that Jtr. Campbell had no right or title of any kind in and to tho property. Lord Dunedin, in giving judg: ment, said that the castle was 0110 of tho oldest fortresses in Scotland, the dato of its ercction being lost in antiquity. Up till 1747 it was abundantly clear that tho Argylls were the proprietors of the fortress. From the earliest times there seemed to have been a Campbell as cantain of Dunslaffnagc. Theso Dunstaffnago Campbells were vassals, and, as such, hail not only a right, but a duty to occupy and possess the castle, which, nevertheless, remained tho property of the superior. The Clan Act, which was pa?sed in 1747, effected no change of property from superior to vassal, nnd tho obligations to keep the castle open to the superior and -to furnish fuel were still pood servi'ce, and not struck out by the Act. There was still the duty and the 1-ifflit of the vassal to remain in tho castle, with the difference that he might, occupv with peaceful servants instead of with armed men. The service demanded of the vassal gave him the right of possession of the castle.