Firetp MEETINGS. 928 
chief of his clan. Before succeeding to the estate and taking 
up his residence at Bonshaw he served his Sovereign in the field. 
His army experience was varied, beginning in the King’s Own 
Regiment, and being subsequently transferred in succession to the 
military train, the transport service, and the Manchester Regi- 
ment. It was when colonel of this regiment that he retired from 
the army and bade farewell to military service, except such as 
may be incident to the duties of a member of the King’s Body- 
guard for Scotland. He took part in the Abyssinian campaign 
of 1867-8, and was at the storming of Magdala. Some of the 
most interesting objects in the tower are connected with that 
incident. They include a gold altar cross of Coptic work, with 
ornamentation of serpents, doves, and crosses; a sacred cup, and 
other articles which formed part of the loot of the capital. 
There are also weapons of numerous and curious forms in use 
in Abyssinia, Madagascar, South Africa, and India, as well as 
those of continental armies. It was curious to see an old- 
fashioned steel spur, with spikes of cruel length, such as was 
anciently in use on the Scottish and English border, side by side 
with one of the modern Mexican cowboy. ‘The resemblance in 
shape is almost exact, but in the cowboy’s the spikes are shorter. 
The walls are adorned with horns of the antelope, the vilde- 
beest, and kindred species, and with antlers of the reindeer and 
the wapiti deer—the latter specimen having no less than fourteen 
tines. 
Beginning the exploration of the tower, the visitors first 
passed under “ the Crusader’s Stone,’’ which is built into the roof 
of the little square entrance hall. It bears the sacred monogram 
in ancient Hebrew letters, and tradition says that it was brought 
from Jerusalem by an Irving who took part in one of the first 
crusades. Passing into the retainers’ kitchen—a barrel-arched 
apartment of spacious dimensions—they had their attention 
directed to the immense stone bin, in which salted provisions 
could be stored in time of siege, and had an opportunity of 
making brief personal acquaintance with the dungeon. This is a 
small apartment in the thickness of the wall, capable on a pinch 
of holding fourteen persons. It is windowless and perfectly 
dark, but a small opening in the wall carried right up to the 
battlements admits of the ingress of a very meagre supply of air. 
Opening off the same little entrance hall is the stone stair of the 
