FINHAVEN-CARNEGIES SUCCEED. 199 of battle, and is impeached in the song which follows as having been bought over by the Government. The third verse refers. to the ejection of the Rev. Mr. Grub, the last Episcopalian minister of Oathlaw; and, since it is recorded that Mr. Grub was "never admitted to the parish by any Church judicatory," it is probable, from the pointed allusion in the ballad to Carnegie's being guilty of simony, that Grub had been originally of Carnegie's choice, though the laird supported the subsequent induction of Mr. Anderson, a Royalist, and thereby had most probably obtained some direct or indirect pecuniary favour. The song is quaintly entitled He winna be Guidit by Me. O heavens, he's ill to be guidit, His colleagues and he are dividit, Wi' the Court of Hanover he's sidit- He winna be guidit by me. They ca'd him their joy and their darling, Till he took their penny of arling; But he'll prove as false as Macfarlane He winna be guidit by me. He was brought south by a merling, Got a hundred and fifty pounds sterling, Which will make him bestow the auld carlin He winna be guidit by me. He's anger'd his goodson and Fintry, By selling his king and his country, He's joined the rebellious club, too, That endeavours our peace to disturb, too; He's cheated poor Mr. John Grub, too, And he's guilty of simony. He broke his promise before, too, To Fintry, Auchterhouse, and Strathmore, too; God send him a heavy glengore, too, For that is the death he will die. But the circumstance by which Carnegie is best known is the murder of the Earl of Strathmore. This unfortunate affair arose, as will be seen by a perusal of the trial,' from the taunts and gibes that he received from John Lyon of Brigton regarding his treachery in the cause of the Chevalier. The circumstances attending this murder are briefly these:-On Thursday, the 9th of May 1728, several county gentlemen assembled at Forfar to attend the funeral of a daughter of Patrick Carnegie of Lour. After dinner the company, according to the custom of the times, adjourned to an inn, where they regaled themselves until the dusk of the evening. Among these were Charles, the sixth Earl of Strathmore, his kinsman of Brigton, and Carnegie of Finhaven. Being all intoxicated, Brigton first insulted Carnegie by his talk within doors, and on coming to the street, thrust him into the common kennel. Enraged at these proceedings, Carnegie, on recovering himself, ran up to his companions, and made a thrust at Brigton with a drawn sword. By misadventure, however, it passed through the body of Strathmore, who was attempting to reconcile the parties, and the Earl died on the following Saturday from the effects of the wound. Arraigned before the High Court of Justiciary "for the crime of wilful and premeditate murder," Carnegie secured the services of Dundas of Arniston, the future Lord President; and, notwithstanding the able pleading for the Crown by the celebrated Duncan Forbes, who was then Lord Advocate, Dundas succeeded in obtaining a verdict of not guilty for his client. This case is further remarkable as being the first in Scotland in which the power of a jury was established according to ancient practice, which was then questioned, of returning a general verdict of the guilt or innocence of the accused, and not merely of determining whether the facts in the indictment were proved or not. In early life Carnegie married Margaret, daughter of Sir William Bennet of Grubbet, by whom he had two daughters. Of these, the one was married to Sir John Ogilvy of Inver1 See the trial, as given in Arnot, Criminal Trials, pp. 178-191. FINHAVEN-LATE PROPRIETORS. 201 quharity, Bart., and the other first to Foulis of Woodhall, and secondly to Charles Lewis, both daughters having issue. His first wife died in 1738. He subsequently married Violet Nasmyth, by whom he had his son and heir, and a daughter Barbara, who was married to Sir Alexander Douglas of Glenbervie, son of the compiler of the Scottish Peerage and Baronage, and Physician to his Majesty's Forces in Scotland. Carnegie died in 1765, and, with the exception of his son, who died without issue at Lisbon twelve years afterwards, he was the last of his race in Finhaven. The succession then devolved on his daughter, Lady Douglas, who, to meet the demands of her brother's creditors, had the lands sold in 1779. They were purchased by the fourth Earl of Aboyne, by whose frugality and industry the ruined estate of his ancestors was restored to its old importance; and in 1781 he resigned Finhaven in favour of his son by his second wife, the Honourable George Douglas Gordon Hallyburton, who sat long in Parliament for Forfarshire. Hallyburton sold Finhaven in the year 1804 to James Ford, an extensive manufacturer in Montrose. Ford's circumstances having become embarrassed, he went abroad and followed the laborious calling of a teacher. The estate being exposed for sale in 1817, it was bought by the late Marquis of Huntly, then Lord Aboyne, at the price of £65,000, being an advance of no less than £26,000 over the purchase-money paid for it by his father in 1779. Like the affairs of his predecessor, those of the Marquis also became embarrassed, and in the year 1843 Finhaven was purchased from his trustees for £75,000 by the trustees of the late Thomas Gardyne of Middleton, in terms of whose testamentary deed it was held by his maternal nephew, James Carnegie, W.S. The latter was second son of Thomas, the fourth laird of Craigo, was designed of Finhaven and Noranside, and, on the failure of male issue, was succeeded by his cousin, David Greenhill of Fern and Craignathro, each assuming the name Gardyne on obtaining the estate. On his accession in 1864, Mr. David Greenhill Gardyne erected the fine baronial residence of Finhaven Castle, in the vicinity of the ruins of the old Finhaven, but did not long survive its completion, having died in 1867. His only son, the present Colonel Charles Greenhill Gardyne, then succeeded to the property. Thomas Gardyne was the last male descendant of the ancient family of Gardyne of that Ilk, who were proprietors in Angus from a remote period, and one of whom married Lady Janet, daughter of Sir David Lindsay of Edzell. Mr. Carnegie Gardyne, the ante-penultimate proprietor, was a lineal descendant, in the fourth generation, of David Carnegie, minister of Farnell and Dean of Brechin, by Helen, daughter of Bishop Lindsay of Edinburgh. The Dean purchased the estate of Craigo, and was the first of that race, which is represented in the female line by Sir George Macpherson Grant, Bart., of Ballindalloch and Invereshie. On the death of Thomas Carnegie of Craigo, in 1856, this property passed to his cousin, Thomas Macpherson Grant, youngest son of the late Sir George Macpherson Grant, Bart.; but he died at Chiswick, Middlesex, on 23d September 1881, at the age of sixty-six. As descended from Hercules, sixth son of Sir Robert Carnegie of Kinnaird, and uncle of the first Earls of Southesk and Northesk, on the one hand, and from the daughter of Bishop Lindsay on the other, the late laird of Finhaven was not only related to the old Carnegies of that place, but (Bishop Lindsay being a cadet of the house of Edzell) was also connected with the more ancient and powerful lords of the district-the Earls of Crawford.2 1 Fraser, Hist. Carnegies of Southesk, ii. p. 436. 2 The facts regarding the transmission of the lands of Finhaven from 1672 were obligingly gleaned from the title-deeds, and communicated by the late proprietor, Mr. James Carnegie, W.S. See APPENDIX No. VII. FINHAVEN-THE OLD CASTLE. 203 SECTION IV. Those stately towers, those heights sublime, PERCY. Finhaven Castle-Story of its fall-Its situation-The harper hung-Jock BarefootInner life of old Finhaven--Surrounded by retainers and allies-MarkhouseBlairiefeddan-Woodwrae-Balgavies and Sir Walter Lindsay-Estate lost, and how previously acquired. LIKE the other castles of the Lindsays in Forfarshire, that of Finhaven is a total ruin, and little idea can now be formed of either the style of its architecture or its original extent. In its palmiest days it was a much larger place than Edzell; for thick and continuous foundations of houses are yet found two and three hundred yards to the west and south of the castle; but there are no remains of sculpture like that at Edzell or Careston. Indeed, with the exception of the turret on the north-east corner, and a few lintels near the centre of the building-which present some simple but not inelegant mouldings-no trace of ornamental masonry is now to be seen. The only initials and date, as already noticed, are those which refer to the eleventh Earl, the father of "the Prodigal," who had perhaps in some way added to or altered the castle. We are not aware that any drawing was made of it when entire, or that any description of it exists before that by Mr. Ochterlony, who calls it (circa 1682) "a great old house; but now by the industrie of the present laird [the first Carnegie] is made a most excellent house; fine roomes and good furniture, good yards, excellent planting, and enclosures, and avenues.' It fell to ruin during the time of the last Carnegie, and the circumstances attending its dilapidation, though seemingly vague, are uniformly attested as fact. 1 Spottisw. Misc. i. p. 332. "1 |