Strange Pages from Family Papers | Page 6

fire breaking out in one of the rooms, Mrs. Erskine was
burnt, and died, leaving, beside others, three children who were born
blind, and who all lived to old age.
But this remarkable curse was to be further fulfilled, for at the
commencement of the present century, upon the alarm of the French
invasion, a troop of the cavalry and yeomen of the district took
possession of the tower, and for a week fifty horses were stabled in its
lordly hall; and in the year 1810, a party of visitors were surprised to
find a weaver plying his loom in the grand old Chamber of State.
Between the years 1815 and 1820, an ash sapling might be seen in the
topmost stone, and many of those who "clasped it in their hands
wondered if it really were the twig of destiny, and if they should ever
live to see the prophecy fulfilled."
In the year 1822, George IV. visited Scotland and searched out the
families who had suffered by supporting the Princes of the Stuart line.
Foremost of them all was the Erskine of Mar, grandson of Mar who had
raised the Chevalier's standard, and to him the King restored his

earldom. John Francis, the grandson of the restored Earl, likewise came
into favour, for when Queen Victoria accidentally met his Countess in a
small room in Stirling Castle, and ascertained who she was, she
detained her, and, after conversing with her, kissed her. Although the
Countess had never been presented at St. James's, yet, in a marvellous
way, "the kiss of peace was given to her, though she sought it not"; and
then, after the curse had worked through 300 years, the "weird dreed
out, and the doom of Mar was ended."[2]
Another instance which may be quoted relates to Sherborne Castle.
According to the traditionary accounts handed down, it appears that
Osmund, one of William the Conqueror's knights, who had been
rewarded, among other possessions, with the castle and barony of
Sherborne, in the decline of life determined to resign his temporal
honours, and to devote himself exclusively to religion. In pursuance of
this object, he obtained the Bishopric of Salisbury, to which he gave
certain lands, but annexed to the gift the following conditional curse:
"That whosoever should take those lands from the Bishopric, or
diminish them in great or small, should be accursed, not only in this
world, but in the world to come, unless in his lifetime he made
restitution thereof." In a strange and wonderful manner this curse is
said to have been more than once fulfilled. Upon Osmund's death, the
castle and lands fell into the hands of the next bishop, Roger Niger,
who was dispossessed of them by King Stephen, on whose death they
were held by the Montagues, all of whom, it is affirmed, so long as
they kept these lands, were subjected to grievous disasters, in so much
that the male line became altogether extinct. About two hundred years
from this time, the lands again reverted to the Church, but in the reign
of Edward VI. the Castle of Sherborne was conveyed by the then
Bishop of Sarum to the Duke of Somerset, who lost his head on Tower
Hill. Sir Walter Raleigh, again, obtained the property from the crown,
and it was to expiate this offence, it has been suggested, he ultimately
lost his head. But in allusion to this reputed curse, Sir John Harrington
gravely tells how it happened one day that Sir Walter riding post
between Plymouth and the Court, "the castle being right in the way, he
cast such an eye upon it as Ahab did upon Naboth's vineyard, and
whilst talking of the commodiousness of the place, and of the great

strength of the seat, and how easily it might be got from the Bishopric,
suddenly over and over came his horse, and his very face--which was
then thought a very good one--ploughed up the earth where he fell."
Then again Prince Henry died shortly after he took possession, and
Carr, Earl of Somerset, the next proprietor fell in disgrace. But the way
the latter obtained Sherborne was far from creditable, for, having
discovered a technical flaw in the deed in which Sir Walter Raleigh had
settled the estate on his son, he solicited it of his royal master, and
obtained it. It was in vain that Lady Raleigh on her knees appealed to
James against this injustice, for he only answered, "I mun have the land,
I mun have it for Carr." But Lady Raleigh was a woman of high spirit,
and there on her knees, before King James, she prayed to God that He
would punish those who had thus wrongfully exposed her, and her
children, to ruin. She was, in fact, re-echoing the curse