26 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



in the interesting tale of its late lord, a striking example of patience foiling 

 persecution ; the second, by again opening upon us those Arcadian pastimes and 

 rural enjoyments which are reported to have caught additional fervour under 

 its wizard shade — and both by severally offering to the mind's eye, such contrast 

 as we observe between the gay scenery and laughing groups of a Teniers, and 

 the characteristic gloom of a Salvator. 



The circumstances of local interest to which we allude are briefly these : In the 

 vault of the parish church Sir Patrick Hume, in order to elude the pursuit of his 

 pohtical enemies, lay concealed for six weeks, surrounded by all those gloomy 

 relics of mortality which had accumulated for ages in this charnel house of his 

 ancestors. WliUe he was sitting one night, says our authority, by a small table 

 vdth a light, engaged in the perusal of Buchanan's Latin version of the Psalms — 

 the whole of which, it is said, he had committed to memory during his con- 

 cealment — his eye was suddenly attracted to a human skull at his feet, which, 

 on more minute observation, appeared to move slightly and at short intervals. 

 Although of strong mind, and convinced that it was either the eflTect of optical 

 delusion, or that of an imagination powerfully acted upon by the objects around him 

 — still he was not a Uttle perplexed how to settle the question in his own mind — 

 and, continuing to observe it with increasing interest, the motion at last became 

 so obvious, that the skull seemed as if animated, and left no subterfuge for his 

 incredulity. The knight, however — vrith a coolness and composure which did 

 credit to his philosophy, and resolved to ascertain, by still more palpable evidence, 

 the actual state of the matter — apphed the point of his cane to the ghastly reUc, 

 and by a sudden jerk turned it over. This done, the nervous suspense was 

 instantly relieved, and a mouse, that had been banqueting in the once warm brain 

 of some departed Yorick, sprang from its burrow, and left the knight to exclaim, 

 in words suited to the occasion — • 



" To what base uses we may return, Horatio ! " 



There is a similar story which we have heard somewhere abroad— and known, 

 perhaps, to some of our readers — which states, that in a domestic chapel, 

 belonging to a certain chateau, a mysterious sound was heard nightly .for a 

 considerable time, to the great alarm and annoyance of the inmates, and 

 ultimately discovered to proceed from a skull, which performed a rotatory 

 march along the floor of the chancel — resting and recommencing the move- 

 ment at short intervals. The construction at first put on this phenomenon 

 is obvious ; but the secret spring was not discovered for some time ; tiU the 

 skuU, becoming stationary, was found on examination to contain a rat, which 



