6 Transactions. 
Edzell Castle in Forfarshire, belonging to the third period of 
Scottish architecture, from 1400 to 1542, during which 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. TAN 
vaulted chamber, which occupied the first floor of the tower, 
goes by the name of “ Annie Laurie’s boudoir”; though J much 
doubt whether the fourth daughter of a country 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 surpass, 
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 
