6 Transactions. 



Edzell Castle in Forfarshire, belonging to the third period of 

 Scottish architecture, from 1400 to 1542, during wliich period 

 the keep-tower began to be enlarged into a building surrounding 

 a courtyard or quadrangle. In the later examples of that period 

 a turret is introduced, as at Edzell and Maxwelton, into the 

 re-entering angle of the wing, so as to give convenient access to 

 the room on either side of the angle. Edzell Castle consists of a 

 15th century tower, enlarged in the 16th century into a building 

 round a quadrangle, and, as is the case at Maxwelton, the garden 

 adjoins the Castle on the south. In the 15th and 16th centuries 

 the Maxwelton estate belonged to the Earls of Glencairn. The 

 title was granted in 1488, and I am disposed to think that about 

 that time the original building was erected, or possibly a still 

 older building re-constructed, and the designation of Glenkairn 

 Castle given to it by the Earl of that name. This makes 

 the home of Annie Laurie to have been about 200 years old 

 when she was born, or 400 years old at the present date. A 

 vaulted chamber, which occupied the first floor of the tower, 

 goes by the name of " Annie Laurie's boudoir "; though I much 

 doubt whether the fourth daughter of a countiy gentlemen 

 possessed such a luxury 200 years ago. It may possibly have 

 been a small oratory. More authentic are the portraits of Annie 

 and her husband, Alexander Fergusson, son of the Fergusson* who 

 was killed at Killiecrankie in 1689, which have never been out 

 of the family, and which I was fortunate enough to acquire by 

 purchase some years ago. For nearly 300 years, then, the present 

 family has been in possession of Maxwelton. The property was 

 originally a large one, Craigdarroch and Maxwelton dividing the 

 greater part of the parish of Glencairn between them ; but on the 

 failure of the Ayr Bank of Douglas, Heron & Co., in 1772, after 

 two years of as neat an exhibition of knavery and folly as any 

 modern company promoter might find it difficult to sur2:)ass, 

 four-fifths or more of the property was sold to cover calls, which, 

 it is said, amounted to £1400 per share. 



The first owner of Maxwelton, Stephen Laurie, was a flourish- 

 ing Dumfries merchant, and married Marion, daughter of Provost 

 Corsane, receiving with her, it is said, a large fortune. Anyhow, 

 they bought Maxwelton of the Earl of Glencairn. His. son John 

 married Agnes Grierson, of the Lag family, and their marriage 

 stone is still preserved over an old doorway at Maxwelton — J.L. 

 A.G., 1641, with crest and arms, and underneath in Latin, " Ni 



