was fulfilled in the fortunes at least of the elder branches of the houses of Crawford and Edzell, and their name remains in one landed family alone. The Angus Lindsays attained the height of their prosperity when, for one generation, their oldest earldom blossomed into the dukedom of Montrose; but, in spite of the gallant efforts of one or two of their name of character and attainments, a series of turbulent and reckless generations dissipated estates that once embraced about two-thirds of Angus. 'The evil Master' began the process; to 'a princely man, but a sad spendthrift,' succeeded the Prodigal Earl,' and in the days of the Troubles' 'the loyal Earl' was not likely to recover the situation. No more pathetic story of the fall of a great house exists than that in which the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres tells how the last of the lordly line of Edzell, whose princely hospitality won for their castle the name of the kitchen of Angus,' passed into obscurity beyond the Pentland Firth, and how the lady of Aithernie, the proud bird out of the eagle's nest,' came for a last look at the deserted halls.

The rights and lands of the Celtic Mormaers were forfeited by the Umphravilles in the time of Robert the Bruce. The earldom was then conferred on Sir John Stewart of Bonkyl, whose heiress, three generations later, became the third wife of the Earl of Douglas, and their son the first of the Douglas Earls of Angus. The branch of Angus ultimately succeeded to the honours of Douglas, and the remains of the Mormaers' lands belong to their representative, the Earl of Home. The old thanage of Glamis, the dowry of a royal princess in the fourteenth century, remains the central possession of the Lyons, Earls of Strathmore. The line of Carnegie of that Ilk, which has annexed the two great rivers of the shire as its twin titles of honour, has adorned northern Angus with the lofty towers and princely park of Kinnaird and the walls of Ethie with the records of naval service to the State. The old possessions of the Norman houses of de Valoniis and Maule, increased by the acquisition in later years of the heritage of the de Brechins, of whom the Maules were already the rightful representa

* The present Earl of Crawford and Balcarres descends from a younger branch of the family which had long been settled in Fife.

tives, have passed by marriage to the Ramsays of Dalhousie, and both the monument on the hill above Panmure, and the building which contains his generous benefaction to Brechin, keep green the memory of that strange but popular figure whose motto was 'Live and let live,' and who is diversely known as 'the wicked Lord Panmure,' and the Father of Reform in Scotland.' The well in Glenesk records the visit of Queen Victoria to his distinguished son.

The territorial connexion of the Grahams with the ancient thanage of old Montrose, from which they had taken their title since the days of William the Lyon, terminated in the days of 'the great Cavalier.' Of the branches of Claverhouse, Duntrune, and Morphie, the last alone remains, but the name of Dundee is for ever associated with that gallant Graham known to the Westland Whigs as Bluidy Claverse,' and to the Highlanders as 'Dark John of the Battles.' At an earlier period the title of Earl of Dundee was borne by the Scrymgeours of Dudhope, on whose ancestor, Alexander Carron, King Alexander the First, whom he saved from conspiracy at Invergowrie, had conferred the name of 'Scrymgeour' (or 'hardy fighter'), to which either he or William the Lyon had added the office of hereditary standard-bearer of Scotland. A later representative of the same family received from Wallace, as guardian of the realm, the office of Constable of Dundee. The classic pile of Camperdown House, and the huge figure-head of the Vryheid, recall the long weeks when, with mutiny at the Nore and a skeleton fleet, Admiral Duncan held the mouth of the Texel, and how he broke the naval power of Holland on its own low shore.

The castles and country houses of Angus are illus trative of its history. A few have their awe-inspiring traditions of the supernatural and the mysterious. The sealed chamber of Glamis holds its strange secret, and local superstition may maintain that the Tiger Earl of Crawford still plays on there, awaiting the change in luck that will never come till the day of judgment. The drummer-boy of Airlie may still beat his summons around the towers of Cortachy, and the tread of the cardinal's foot echo on the stone stair of Ethie. The barefooted boy may walk from Finhaven while there grows a chest

nut tree, and the white lady of Careston flit through the wood, bewildered by the vicissitudes of its ownership. The memory of the Black Earl' and his more than human knowledge may haunt Kinnaird, and a kindlier halo illumine that turret-room on the slopes of the Sidlaws, where, in time of plague, Ballantyne set himself to preserve the ballad poetry of Scotland. The massive though riven tower of Finhaven, the carved masonry and stately yards of Edzell, the crumbling ruins of Vayne and Inverqueich recall how the grasp of fate closed on the heart of the Licht Lindsays.' Forthar never recovered the rough handling of the Campbells, but Airlie and Cortachy record the growth and changing conditions of the family that owns them. The iron yetts' of Inverquharity, for which the royal license of James II exists, and of Invermark, tell of a time when the strong man who lived on the highland border had to keep well his house. From the old tower of Guthrie, with its ten-feet walls, father and son of that ilk,' descendants of the Squire Guthrie' that fought with Wallace, rode to their rest on the fatal field of Flodden. Mains in Strathdichty has replaced the earlier castle of the old Earls of Angus, and the ruins of Red Castle recall the name of Baliol as well as the ruffianly raid when Gray of Blackjack nearly suffocated Lady Innermeath with smoke. Panmure is an example of the stately building of a great noble at the time of the Restoration. Brechin occupies the site of the castle so gallantly defended against the great Plantagenet, and Glamis, the most famous of all, unites traditions of hoary antiquity with traces of the genius of Inigo Jones. 'No other castle in Scotland,' says Billings, 'probably stands in this day so characteristic a type of feudal pomp and power. It by no means detracts from the solemn grandeur of the edifice and its overawing influence that it conveys no distinct impression of any particular age, but appears to have grown, as it were, through the various periods of Scottish baronial architecture.' No district of Scotland exhibits more fully the combination of ancient associations with modern comfort, and the varied origin of landed property in old inheritance, in military and naval service to the State, and in strenuous and successful industry and

commerce.

In the rich fields of Strathmore the stately glossycoated Angus Doddie' has attained his fullest development, and the more rapidly maturing short-horn cross gives brighter colour to the scene, while numerous substantial steadings of dull coloured sandstone, well filled rick-yards, and comfortable cottages, brightened with well cared-for flowers, evidence an advanced agriculture to which judicious landlords' outlay and industrious tenants' energy have concurrently contributed. The mills of Strathdichty, of Brechin, Forfar, Arbroath, and Carnoustie, and the tall chimneys and ceaseless machinery of Dundee, testify to capable captains of industry and busy labour. The quays of a great commercial city have covered the old landing-place by the craig of St Nicholas. 'In Tiberim defluxit Orontes,' and the produce of the banks of the Hooghly has brought wealth and prosperity to those of the Tay. Monifieth and Carnoustie, with their mansions of merchant princes and innumerable villas, point to widely diffused comfort and well-doing, and the fisher folk of Auchmithie and Ferryden continue to reap the harvest of the North Sea. The links of Barry, where a kingdom was saved, form a trainingground for national defence, and, far out on the reef of the Inchcape Rock, an outpost of Angus looks towards Heligoland, and the first of Scottish rock lighthouses rises in the tall column of the Bell Rock, where constantly

A ruddy gem of changeful light
Gleams on the dusky brow of night.'

Art. 13.-THE APPEAL TO THE NATION.

1. The Lords' Debate on the Finance Bill, 1909. Reprinted from the Times' of November 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, and 30.

2. The People's Budget explained by the Rt Hon. D. Lloyd George, M.P. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909.

THE battle of the Budget is over. The campaign for the preservation of the constitution, and especially of the Union with Ireland, has begun. Hence many war-cries and controversies which for the last six months and more have distracted the country may be lightly passed over. It would, for example, be a waste of ink and paper to trouble our readers with a confutation of the silly assertion that the Lords have opposed the will of the British people. The charge is on the face of it groundless. What the Lords have done is nothing more than to insist that on a matter as to which there exist the widest differences of opinion, and which concerns the permanent and vital interests of the country, an appeal shall be made to the nation. In accordance with the substantial result of that appeal the Peers will regulate their conduct. The maddest of Roman emperors never dreamed that an appeal to Cæsar was a denial of Cæsar's authority. The electors, who, as things stand, are possessed of sovereign power, are not so dull as to imagine that to appeal from the majority of the House of Commons to the people is to offer defiance to the people. Few words again need be spent on the pretence that the Peers claim to regulate the national finances. They claim nothing of the kind. They have simply exercised the established right of rejecting a Bill which, under the pretence of being a mere money Bill, included permanent legislative changes, and therefore ought, like all other permanent legislation, to be submitted to the criticism and the vote of the Lords. The absolute rejection without any attempt to amend the Budget is enough of itself to negative the wild idea that the Peers wish to exercise a lasting control over matters of finance. It savours rather of folly than of partisanship to imagine that the Peers