“CURSE” RECALLED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1941, Page 7

“CURSE” RECALLED

VIOLENT DEATHS IN TITLED FAMILY. A legendary story of a utled family's “curse” elating back to the twelfth century—the curse of the Lambton worm—has been revived by the shotgun death of the 20-year-old Lord Lambton, states a London correspondent of the “Vancouver Daily Province.”

The body of the young son and heir of the Earl of Durham was found slumped over a fountain on the front lawn of his country estate near Woolder, Northumberland. A coroner gave a verdict that Lord Lambton died of a self-inflicted wound while of unsound mind. One shell had been fired from a double-barrelled shotgun found near the body. The youth was clothed as if for an early morning hunt. He recently had been registered for military service.

The origin, circumstances and history of the ancient curse, are vague, and accounts fail to show how frequently the fafhily suffered tragedy from the twelfth century to modern times, but several members have- met untimely deaths in recent years. The legend says one of the earliest Lambtons slew a worm so huge it could wind itself around a hill near the family castle. The price of his victory was a pledge that he should kill the next living creature he mot. He saw his father next —and did not kill him. For this, the lords Lambton for nine generations were “doomed" to suffer.

Gervasse Lambton, 25-year-old cousin of the present earl, disappeared from a Red Sea liner in 1937. Another cousin was killed and his wife seriously injured in a traffic collision in Englancl a year later. Beatrix, wife of the fourth earl, fell while shopping for a grand-daughter's wedding present in 1937 and died a week later —on the wedding day. Eight years earlier her husband had died four months after succeeding to the title.