flush of happiness ministered to my ripening heart by that solitary wood of silver-fir, so, also, can I never forget those feelings of sadness and of pain, when, after an absence of many long years, I sought in vain for my favourite haunts in one of the most dearly cherished scenes of my early youth. Some time or other, dear reader-it may be soon-weeping eyes will look in vain for the landmarks of our existence; and loving hearts will mourn our exit hence, the more deeply and the more sadly, insomuch as we have imperceptibly evaporated like a gossamer dissolving view, leaving not a memory behind. Be it ours then to fulfil our proper destiny, by striving to develop to full fruition, those precious gifts with which a gracious God may have endowed us, and husbanding those blessed opportunities for doing good, which a kind Providence may have combined with our social positions in life. True, we cannot all aspire to be statesmen, philosophers, or poets, but each can do something, however infinitessimally small, to promote the general weal of the Commonwealth, and thereby accelerate the advent of that happy era in the world's history, when moral and Christian enlightenment shall flow down our streets like a stream, and righteousness as a mighty river. CHAPTER XLIV. THE CASTLE OF FORFAR. "The castell of Forfar was then, Barbour. THE old castle of Forfar was of great but uncertain antiquity. All vestiges of the original building have long since disappeared, and with them all record of the date of its erection, or the particular form of the structure itself. Boyce says that Forfar had a castle at the time of the Roman invasion under Agricola, which is considered to be altogether apocryphal. The castle, however, is recorded to have been the scene of the parliament which was held in the year 1057, by Malcolm Canmore after the recovery of his kingdom from the usurpation of Macbeth, and in which surnames and titles were first conferred on the Scottish nobility. It is quite certain that within one hundred and fifty years after the death of that King, Robert de Quincy made over to Roger de Argenten what he designates, "my place of the old castle of Forfar, which our Lord King William gave to me in lieu of a toft, to be held of me and my heirs by him and his heirs, well and peacefully, freely and quietly." (Reg. Prioratus S. Andrae). It is evident from this charter, that there must then have been more than one castle at Forfar; and this view is confirmed by Boyce (Hollinshed's Chron.) who says, that Forfar was "strengthened with two roiall castles as, (he continues) · the ruins doo yet declare." It is supposed that the old castle given over by De Quincy was that of King Malcolm, which tradition states to have stood upon an island on the north side of the loch, called Queen Margaret's Inch, and that it was there King Malcolm held his first parliament, as already noted. The more recent castle would, on this hypothesis, have been the one that stood on the rising ground to the north of the town, called the Castlehill, some traces of which existed down to the end of the last century. William the Lion held a court at this castle between 1202-7; and Alexander I. held a parliament there in person, in 1225, and another in 1227, but from which the king was absent. King Edward and his retinue entered Forfar on Tuesday the 3d of July 1296, and resided in the castle until Friday the 6th. It would appear, however, that during the English monarch's stay at Forfar, only two churchmen and four barons from various parts of the kingdom went there and owned his superiority over Scotland. After Edward's departure, it was held by Brian Fitzadam, one of his retainers, from whom it was captured by Sir William Wallace. It soon fell again into the hands of the English, who kept possession of the fort until its re-capture by Robert the Bruce. Barbour assigns the merit of this capture to Philip, the forester of Platane, near Finhaven "The castell of Forfar was then Stuffit all with Englishmen, But Philip the forestar of Platane And clam out our the wall of stane, And saget has the castell tain And syn all that he fand his slane. And fordid the castell all. And all the towris tumlit war The castle, thus so completely demolished, was never rebuilt, and the court afterwards resided, on its occasional visits to the neighbourhood, either at the Castle of Glamis, or at the Priory of Rostinoth. As not a vestige now remains of this fort on the Castlehill, no conception can be formed of its elevation or extent. The only representations of one or other of these ancient castles which now exist are the figure cut upon the top of the old market cross, and the device which forms the common seal of the burgh. These devices, however, apparently only give a representation of a very inconsiderable portion of what originally must have been a very palatial and extensive stronghold. Like the burghers of Coupar, the sutors" of Forfar seem to have turned the ruins of the ancient edifice into a quarry, for it furnished them with the materials, it is affirmed, for the building of the old steeple, the west entry to the old church, and a large portion of the houses which formed the streets of the old county town! 66 Not a legend or tradition have I been able to trace in connection either with the castle on St Margaret's Inch, or the more kingly residence and stronghold on the castle hill. This is the more remarkable as interesting memorials of royal residences poetically survive in the names of some localities, such as, the King's muir, the Queen's well, the Queen's manor, the Palace dykes, and the Court road; and in the vicinity, the King's burn, the King's seat, and the Wolf law where the nobles were wont to meet for hunting the wolf. Some bronze celts and cabinet ornaments, preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; and a few warlike swords and battle axes, in Glamis Castle, are all that remain to posterity of the royal palaces and castles of Forfar. Even the traditionary story of the armour found in the loch as being that of the murderers of Malcolm II., is rudely falsified by the more prosaic probability, that the swords and battle-axes had rather belonged to the soldiers who fell at the capture of the Castle of Forfar in 1308. Disappointed by the paucity of legendary lore, we must be content to note the more prosaic yet not less interesting historical facts. The first record of these is undoubtedly due to the liberality of the brothers Strang, merchants in Stockholm, and natives of Forfar, who, in 1657 presented to the town three very handsome bells, of which the citizens are justly proud. They were originally hung in the old crazy tower which, until 1814, occupied the site of the present handsome steeple, to which they were then with all due formality transferred. The inscriptions on the largest of the three bells is worth transcribing: viz "THIS BELL IS PERFECTED AND AUGMENTED BY WILLIAM STRANG AND HIS WYFE MARGRET PATTILLO IN STOCKHOLM ANNO 1656. " The other inscription is on the east side of the bell-viz : FOR THE GLORY OF GOD AND LOWE HE DID BEARE TO HIS NATIVE TOUNE, HATHE VMQ' ROBERT STRANG, FRIELY GIFFTED THIS BELL TO THE CHURCHE OF THE BURGHE OF FORFAR, WHO DECEASED IN THE LORD IN STOCKHOLM THE 21 DAY OF APRIL, ANNO 1651. The following quotations from the Evangelist and Psalmist, surround the rim of the bell, at the top and bottom respectively: "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO ANNO 1656. " ET IN TERRA PAX HOMINIBUS BONA VOLUNTAS. "LAETATUS SUM IN HIS QUÆ DICTA SUNT MIHI IN DOMUM DOMINI IBIMUS STANTES ERANT PEDES NOSTRI IN ARTRIIS TUIS Jerusalem. ME FECIT GEROT MEYER. 1656." In the letter of William Strang to the magistrates of Forfar accompanying the gift, he naively says.-"Pay the skipper his reasonable fracht for I behowed to gift him 2 bells for his ship, and hous wse befor he would grant to take it in.—Per skipper whom God preserve." Forfar had always stood firm to the cause of Episcopacy, its magistracy and council boldly protesting when occasion. required against the pretensions of the covenanters. In the reign of Charles II. the following remarkable declaration |