DUNROBIN 



throats, and carried off their chieftain to the strong 

 castle of Strathbogie. 



Thereafter Sutherland managed to keep free from 

 the clutches of his dangerous neighbour. Not only so, 

 but he had no difficulty in obtaining decree of divorce 

 against his wife, Barbara Sinclair, and in 1573 married 

 Lady Jean Gordon, daughter of the fourth Earl of 

 Huntly, the beautiful woman whom Bothwell had 

 divorced in order to marry Mary Queen of Scots. 



Standing on the terrace above the garden at 

 Dunrobin, one is on the very scene of these and 

 many similar deeds which seem well-nigh incredible 

 in our humdrum age. The keep still stands wherein 

 the tyrant Earl of Caithness kept Sutherland 

 a prisoner doomed to death, for it is incorporated 

 in the great pile erected by the second Duke of 

 Sutherland. From the same standpoint may be 

 seen a memorial of a later age the age of Gar- 

 gantuan conviviality in the shape of a large garden- 

 house below the castle. This now is fitted up as a 

 museum, and contains a fine collection of local 

 antiquities and natural history ; but it served a 

 different purpose in the eighteenth century. Hither 

 the lord of the castle used to adjourn with his 

 guests after an early dinner, to spend the long 

 evening plying them with strong wine. Outside the 

 servants assembled towards midnight on the broad 

 stairway leading to this temple of Bacchus, the 

 duty of each being to recover his master and lead 

 (or carry) him to bed. 



199 



