pact property of Clathick, now owned by Captain Campbell
Colquhoun, we learn that it was given off from Ochtertyre in dowry with
a Miss Mary Murray. It was a curious marriage contract provision that
her initials should be cut upon each lintel, and men were living thirty
years ago who had seen "M.M." carved on the stones of the old house.

The estate of Lawers conjures up from the deep oblivion of ages many
stirring times. It was originally "Fordie," but was named Lawers after
the Campbells from Loch Tayside came into possession. How different
our quiet Christian Lord's Days and "kirk-yard cracks" from these
Sunday and festival occasions of bloodshed,

"When strangers from Breadalbane
And clansmen from Loch Tay
Brought to the priest their offerings,
But fought each holy day!"

Still we may remark the ruined chapel almost smothered by the
overturned yew trees that were planted, less, perhaps, to mark the
"route" of the Mass carried in procession (hence "routine," corrupted
into "Rotten Row,") than to furnish the twanging bow for these martial
spirits. That great boulder-stone at the north-eastern end of the
magnificent avenue opposite is, most likely, a Roman landmark, though
it is customary to declare that the Earn once flowed past it. Colonel
Campbell of Lawers was not only a sincere reformer, but John Knox's
history tells us how he commanded a regiment raised to make good the
cause of religious faith and freedom. His second successor was a yet
more staunch and eminent Scotsman, knighted in 1620, and created Earl
of Loudon in 1633. He proved himself a stout opponent of the arbitrary
measures of Charles I. and Laud; was one of the most prominent actors
in the Glasgow Assembly of 1638, and nominated to represent the Church
of Scotland in the Westminster Assembly of Divines. He narrowly
escaped being beheaded in the Tower of London, in spite of a safe
conduct and without trial; but the fiat of the insensate monarch was
recalled, and the warrant torn up by Charles a single day before the
axe was doomed to fall, from fear of the odium and vengeance his death
would have called forth. Not to remain Chancellor of Scotland (as he
was for ten years) would he imperil the interests of religious liberty
and national independence, just then threatened by Stuart absolutism;
and yet he was a man of the type of the great Montrose, as loyal to the
King as he was true to Church and people. Few deserve better to rank