GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



imperio. They affected a royal state, held their court 1 *, had 

 their heralds, and in their old castle of Finhavea kept up a 

 magnificence that would have befitted a monarch. The Earl 

 was waited upon by pages of noble birth, trained up under his 

 eye as aspirants for the honours of chivalry. Thrice did the 

 head of this great family match immediately with the Royal 

 house. Its members became distinguished patrons of art and 

 literature ; they were lawyers and statesmen ; and they were 

 enthusiastic builders, gardeners, and developers of agriculture. 

 Walter de Lindsay, an Anglo-Norman baron, figured as a 

 magnate under David Prince of Strathclyde and Cumbria, 

 before his accession to the throne. William de Lindsay of 

 Crawford was High Justiciary under William the Lion, and his 

 three sons founded the houses of Crawford, Lamberton, and 

 Luffness, of which the last ultimately succeeded to the repre- 

 sentation of the family, adhering to Bruce, while the Lindsays 

 of Lamberton and Crawford supported Baliol. Davids and 

 Alexanders succeeded one another in the long line through 



and David, the fifth Earl, raised his family to the greatest 

 height of its power, was Master of the Household and Lord 

 Chamberlain, a patron of art, and letters also, who was 

 created Duke of Montrose a title to which the Lindsays 

 have since laid claim. 



David, the eighth Earl, who died in 1542, had contributed 

 to embitter the last days of the Duke, and retribution \\ as 

 visited upon him by the misdeeds of his own son, the Master 

 of Crawford, spoken of in Scottish tradition as the " Wicked " 

 or " Evil Master." In this representative of the great house 

 was typified all that was worst in his times, and he exceeded 

 his compeers in prodigality, recklessness, and crime. Attaching 

 himself to a band of ruffians, he seized his father's fortress of 

 Dunbog, practised the life of a bandit, oppressed the people, 

 tyrannised the clergy, and levied blackmail. His final excess 

 was in besieging his father at Finhaven Castle, and, being 

 arraigned for his iniquities, he was adjudged legally guilty of 

 the crime of parricide, and, though his life was spared, he 



PYKAMIUS OF YEW. 



stormy days, until David Lord Lindsay became Earl of 

 Crawford in 1398, his direct descendant, the present twenty- 

 sixth Earl, being the premier of his rank in the Scottish 

 peerage. In Lord Crawford's book, "Lives of the Lindsays," 

 he speak-; of the first bearer of the title as "a bright example 

 of knightly worih." This first Earl fought <i OH trance with 

 John Lord Welles on London Bridge. It was a valiant 

 tourney in the lists, and Welles was struck from his saddle 

 and fell to the ground. Then, dismounted, they fought until 

 Sir David not yet an Earl fastening his dagger in the arms 

 ot his opponent, hurled him to the ground, whereupon, as we 

 read, King Richard, from his "summer castell," cried out : 



" I.iudvssay, cousin, j*o;>d Uiidyssay, 



Do furth that thou should do this day." 



But the Scottish knight, choosing the way of clemency, 

 raised his foe from the ground and presented him to the Queen, 

 "as a gift, wishing, like a true knight, that mercy should 

 proceed from woman." bavidsand Alexanders still succeeded, 



forfeited all the titles and honours of his house. Strange was 

 the way in which the title thereafter passed. The next heir, 

 David Lindsay of Edzell, whose father had fallen at Flodden, 

 succeeded as ninth Earl, while the" Wicked Master" perished 

 in a brawl with a cobbler of Dundee. 



Earl Davidj who was the father of the builder of Balcarres, 

 was a remarkable man in his time, and his action in regard to 

 his peerage was peculiar. Taking pity upon the son of the 

 " Wicked Master," he brought him up as his own child, 

 nourishing indeed an adder in his bosom. His own son, Sir 

 David, succeeded to the Barony of Edzell, while his second son, 

 John, Lord Menmuir, was the ancestor of the Earls of Balcarres. 

 Through the generosity of Earl David, the Earldom of Crawford 

 went back to the original line, and David, son of the " Wicked 

 Mjster," succeeded as tenth Earl of Crawford. Iniquity 

 appears to have been deeply rooted in his line, for the twelfth 

 Earl died a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle in 1621 ; reckless, 

 prodigal, and desperate, he had alienated his possessions, and 



