CARESTON-LAST OF THE SKENES. 287 name, was familiarly known there as Captain Knife: he left the service on the death of his father. Taking part with the late Lord Panmure in the reforming movements of the period, he held a conspicuous place in that momentous crisis, and was one of the party whom Napoleon, soon after his elevation to the First Consulship, arrested for openly drinking to his overthrow at a public banquet in Paris. The fines which were imposed on Skene and Maule, and the bribes they paid for their escape, were so heavy, that, though both had large incomes, and were long-lived, they were, to some extent at least, embarrassed in consequence all their days. Captain Skene died unmarried, and was succeeded by his youngest surviving brother, Alexander, who, with another brother, was deaf and dumb. With the view of enabling these to employ their time usefully, they were both apprenticed in early life to a Mr. Robb, watchmaker, Montrose, a person of provincial eminence in his line. On succeeding to the estates, the last Skene of Skene removed to the ancestral dwelling in Aberdeenshire, where he died in 1827. His nephew James, the fourth Earl of Fife, and grand-nephew, James the fifth Earl, succeeded to the properties, and, after several ineffective attempts to dispose of Careston, the entail at last was removed, with the aid of the Rutherfurd Act, and the estate was sold to the present proprietor, Mr. John Adamson, late manufacturer, Blairgowrie, for £196,000, the transaction of sale being completed in 1873. None of the family, however, was so popular in Forfarshire as the father of these youths-the eldest son of Miss Skene-and of his wild drunken adventures and natural eccentricities many singular anecdotes are preserved. Contemporary with "the rebel laird" of Balnamoon, and resident within a short distance, he is said to have found in him a frequent companion, and the stories of their carousals are so mixed up with each other that they are practically inseparable. Though reputed to be a man of greater learning, and perhaps of more extensive general knowledge, Skene is said to have been much more of the bacchanal than Carnegie. He had travelled a good deal on the Continent, and being naturally of a musical turn, was believed by the vulgar, not only to have the power of making his favourite instrument, the bagpipe, play in the castle while he strolled among the fields, but, like the Black Earl of Southesk, it was also understood that "He learn'd the art that none may name In Padua, beyond the sea." The story of" there being nae wale o' wigs," when the laird fell from his Rosinante into the South Esk at Blaikiemill ford, and his drunken servant placed a wet fagot on his head instead of his wig!—of his falling over his horse's ears into a burn, and crying to his man, "Is that a man fa'en i̇' the water, Harry? I thocht I heard a plash!"—of his being set past in his carriage, in the shed, and forgot for hours-and a host of kindred anecdotes, are printed in almost all jest-books, and need not be repeated. They are, however, generally understood in the locality to have occurred between Skene and his man Harry Walker; but the first story belongs properly to the contemporary laird of Balnamoon, who falls to be noticed in the next Chapter. Such were the proprietors of Careston from earliest record to the present time; and, as a family called Mitchell occupied until recently the farm of Nether Careston, which their progenitors had held from at least the time of Earl Henry of Crawford (the last tenant having among his papers leases to his forefathers by Earl Henry, until they were lately handed over to the Earl of Fife), some notice of them, as still preserved in the district, may not be inaptly given under this head. Having always been energetic, they were foremost in all sorts of agricultural improvement, and, among other advances, were the first in the north-eastern district of the county to erect a thrashing-mill, and adopt the use of fanners. As a matter of course, they had much to contend with in so doing, because the wonderful CARESTON-MITCHELLS OF CARESTON. 289 power of the latter machine in separating the grain from the chaff was attributed to supernatural agency, and called the Devil's Wind! It is said that the prejudice was so strong against their use, that Mitchell and his family were compelled to work them personally, and scarcely a housewife would allow a particle of the meal, that was made from the corn that passed through them, to enter her house. Still, the farmer persevered, and the advantage of the fanners became so apparent, that even during his own lifetime no meal could be found that had not undergone the process of being chaffed by the heretical wind. This same farmer was also the greatest cultivator of flax while the bounty was given, having had in one year no less than a hundred acres under that crop.1 Nor was it alone in their farming operations that this family were ahead of their neighbours; for, while other tenants had merely the glow of the fire, and splinters of wood to aid them in their domestic duties in the evenings, and only the cold earthen floor under their feet, these had white tallow candles for enlivening the gloom, and the floor of the ben, or inner apartment of their house, was laid with green turf, or strewn with rushes gathered from the banks of the Noran. This, it is said, was deemed so extravagant by the laird at the time, that he threatened to turn Mitchell out of his holding if he persisted in their use; but, the farmer being incorrigible, the threat went for nothing, and he continued to augment the comfort of his house by steady steps. He was followed in Nether Careston by successive descendants down to 1870, when Mr. George Mitchell left for the colonies. 1 Information from Mr. Thomas Ross, Manchester. T SECTION III. Forsaken stood the hall, Worms ate the floors, the tap'stry fled the wall: CRABBE. O, the name of gallant Grahame- SCOTT. The "Castle of Fuirdstone "-Careston Castle described-Ochterlony's account-Its decorations-Thorough repair-Traditions of Careston-Retreat of Montrose from Dundee to Careston-Later acts of Montrose-His execution. 1 It has been shown that a portion of the estate of Careston was known by the name of Fuirdstone, and could boast in old times of a tower or fortalice so called. This stronghold is mentioned by Monipennie in 1612, as the castle or tower of "Bannabreich." The ruins of a large house, called "the castle of Fuirdstone," were erased from a field west of the farmhouse of Balnabreich, about the beginning of this century, and, to this day, the plough turns up ruins of old buildings near the same place. The name had, doubtless, originated from the more than ordinary number of fords that are at this part of the river, for that adjoining the site of the old castle is only one of several that lie within a short distance of each other. Perhaps, as the Gaelic Bal-na-breith implies "the town of judgment, or sentence,"3 this may have been the place where Keraldus, or other early barons, dispensed feudal justice. The necessary adjunct, the Law, or cairn, stood on an adjoining field, called the Law-shade, which lies nearly due south of the 2 1 John Guthrie of Balnabreich appears as witness to a mortification by Sir Thomas Maule of Panmure in 1509 (Reg. de Panmure, ii. p. 279), and the same, or another John, is witness to an inquest and service in the mill and lands of Camistown on behalf of Sir Thomas, grandson of the preceding, in 1560 (Ib. ii. p. 310). James Guthrie is portioner of Balnabreich in 1589 (Reg. Ep. Brech. ii. p. 227), and in 1595 resigns Wester Balnabreich in favour of Alexander Carnegie (of Balnamoon), youngest son of David Carnegie of Colluthie, "cum turre fortalicio hortis," etc. (lb. ii. p. 370). 2 New Stat. Acct. Forfar. p. 518. 3 Or "the speckled town." CARESTON-THE CASTLE. 291 site of the reputed monument of Carril. Many rude coffins and urns were found on reducing this cairn. It is not probable that Fuirdstone Tower (as popularly believed) was the original castle of Careston, for, as previously mentioned, there was a residence here, and the district had probably its name from being the abode of Keraldus; while, as shown by Monipennie, Fuirdstone and Careston were contemporary houses. The present castle of Careston has been added to and ornamented by various lairds. The latest erected, or back part, with its turrets and battlements, particularly when seen from the Fern road, has the most castellated appearance of the whole fabric, and the best view of the front is obtained from the Angus Hill, on the opposite side of the Esk. The front consists of a main part of three stories, and two gable wings of four, which project about twenty feet from the centre or old part, and are connected together by a lead-covered corridor of one story, giving the whole a solid massive effect. A fine cable moulding runs along the top of the wall, and round many of the window lintels, of the old part of the house. The centre, as before said, is the oldest portion of the castle, and, including the general appearance of the place, is thus described by Ochterlony: "A great and most delicat house, well built, brave lights, and of a most excellent contrivance, without debait the best gentleman's house in the shyre; extraordinaire much planting, delicate yards and gardens with stone walls, ane excellent avenue with ane range of ash-trees on every syde, ane excellent arbour, for length and breadth, none in the countrey lyke it. The house built by Sir Harry Lindsay of Kinfaines, after[wards] earl of Crawfourd."1 Though two centuries have nearly elapsed since Guynd gave this expressive account of the castle of Careston, yet had the house not been long tenantless and uncared for-had the the excellent avenue, that extended from the river at Gateside 1 Spottisw. Misc. i. p. 334. |