GLAMIS CASTLE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 August 1932, Page 7

GLAMIS CASTLE

KILLED BY TAXATION. LONDON, August 14. Tile oldest inhabited house in Britain is about to be shuttered. Taxation a weapon triumphing where the crossbow, the stoup of boiling pitch, and the battering ram failed—is likely to haul down the flag of the BowesLydn family that has waved for 600 years over Glamis Castle. This is the seat of the Earl and Countees of Strathmore,'the parents of the Duchess of York. It is situated in Forfarshire, in a broad valley between the Grampians and the Sidlaws. The castle has played, its part in history since the dawn of the eleventh century. . ' . V The 1 -grimmest act of all its hoary' age has been reserved for His Majesty’s Inland Revenue! in the year 1932. Taxes are nearly twenty shillings in the pound. The Earl and Countess are going to leave. Glamis still holds secrets, however, which even The gentlemen whd compile Forms A and B ’(Personal Exertion and Income from Property, Write in Block Letters) have not dared to ppy ipto-ryet. One hall is the traditional scene of the murder of Duncan by Macbeth,, the “Thane of Glamis,” Next r is the chamber where King Malcolm 11, of Scotland is believed to have been murdered in 1034.

Here, on certain anniversary nights iso it is said, the shivering guest maj heaif mailed feet and the clash of swords in the stone passages. Then the doors burst open, and the bloodstained figure of l the Kins', .staggers in, Another old Scottish custom, of clafi fends and betrayals, has itt memorial here, Ip' the old days a party of Qgilvys, fleeing front tl:c‘ Lindsays, sought refuge at Glamis. •They were hidden in the secret room. They were Jeff there. Weeks, months passed. The refugees perished of starvation, as in a tomb. Centuries later, mere strolling in the grounds have seen the phantom faces of those unhappy Ogilvys at a castle window which could not be traced from within.

The way to this secret room is -known only to the Earl, his eldest son and . a third person taken into their confidence. When the eldest son attains his majority be is taken into the room and something shown to him. After that he con smile again—if he. wants to.

With Glamis locked up, the cobwebj wilt gather over the mediaeval secret Wfirff is it? A skeleton in the family cupboard, Perhaps a sorrowing laird merely keeps there copies of schedules A and 8., returned in the good old days when Personal; Exertion was only a matter of inserting a blade between the ribs of Malcolm tile Second.