32 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



stone on each side, like a little town leads through a space of half a mile to the 

 outer court, within which are statues as large as life. On the great gate of the 

 inner court, are balustrades of stone, finely adorned with statues ; and in the 

 court, four colossal statues one of James VI. in his stole, another of Charles I., 

 as he is usually painted by Vandyk. From this court we have a full prospect 

 of the gardens on each side, cut into grass-plots, and adorned with evergreens. 

 The house is the highest we have ever seen, consisting of a lofty tower in the 

 middle, with two wings, and a tower at each end the whole above two hundred 

 feet broad. The stairs, from the entrance hall to the top of the house, consist of 

 one hundred and forty-three steps, of which those of the great staircase, where 

 five people can mount abreast, are eighty-six, each step of a single block. In 

 the first floor are thirty-eight rooms with fire-places ; the hall is adorned with 

 family pictures, and behind this is a handsome chapel, with an organ. On the 

 altar is a fine painting of the ' Last Supper,' and on the ceiling an ' Ascension,' 

 by De Wit, a Dutchman, whom Earl Patrick brought from Holland, and who 

 painted the ceilings of most of the rooms. In the drawing-room next to the 

 hall is an excellent portrait of Queen Mary, of Medina, the ' Pretender's' 

 mother, with several others of the principal Scottish nobility ; and over the 

 chimney, a curious Italian scripture piece. When the Pretender was here 

 on a visit, besides the state chamber, eighty-eight beds were made up for his 

 retinue, besides the servants, who were lodged in the offices out of doors." 



On the Hunters' Hill, an eminence which overlooks Glammis, Malcolm II. 

 is said to have been attacked by assassins ; and tradition still points out the 

 chamber in the castle where the unfortunate monarch died of his wounds. To 

 the readers of Shakspeare it would be superfluous to state how Macbeth became 

 master of Glammis, and this stronghold and the usurper so closely associated. 

 In the armoury of the castle a museum well stored with antiquities that 

 recall the " pomp and circumstance" of their feudal possessors are the sword 

 and shirt of mail worn by Macbeth and, among others of modern date, the 

 arms with which the earl of Strathmore fell on the field of Sheriffmoor, are 

 exhibited to visitors. The castle is in all respects an object of interest, not 

 only on account of its traditions, but as one of the finest specimens of feudal 

 architecture now existing ; and combines, in a striking manner, the gloom of 

 prison security with the grandeur of a 'palace. 



Among the melancholy associations connected with this castle, is the fate 

 of the beautiful Lady Glammis, who fell a victim to that horrid superstition 

 which, in a barbarous age, brought so many unhappy beings to the stake. In 

 pursuance of the sentence which had pronounced her guilty of witchcraft, she 



