among "The Scots Worthies." He disponed Lawers estate to his brother,
who, fighting against Cromwell at Inverkeithing, was badly beaten, and
had his lands on the north of Loch Earn taken from him by an oppressive
exaction put in force against him by the same Stuart dynasty, whose
cause he had so faithfully championed.

A thrilling tale introduces the next laird of Lawers, son of the last
named. He executed a punitive commission against his uncanny
neighbours, the Macgregors, who determined on revenge. They surprised
him at Lawers in bed, and threatened instant death, even in his wife's
presence. He urged for time to pray, and that it might be for
quietness in the chapel hard by, which request they granted. On the
way thither he so played on their cupidity, offering them 10,000 merks
if they would spare his life, that at last he prevailed. Faithful to
his engagement, he raised this immense sum, much of it being gathered
in halfpence, and carried on horseback to the appointed trysting-place.
But Lawers was better than his word, for soldiers surrounded the house,
and made the Macgregors prisoners. The game ended with checkmate, when
the duped freebooters paid the death penalty in Edinburgh. Colonel
David R. Williamson, the present laird of Lawers, has been long noted
for his public spirit and eminent services to agriculture.

Tomachastel, the central wooded height of the parish, now surmounted by
the monument, erected by his widow, in 1832, to the memory of General
Sir David Baird of Ferntower, is marked out beyond all reasonable doubt
as the site of the ancient Castle of Earn, for long the fortress
dwelling of the great and powerful Earls of Strathearn. The title is
now merged in the names of Royalty, like the Dukedoms of Rothesay and
Albany. Our own beloved Queen's father was the Duke of Kent and
Strathearn, as her third son is Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. No
situation within the wide strath can compare with it in fair and
far-reaching prospect, combined with facilities for defence; and the
lighting of its beacon fire would be so universally observed over a
wide domain that a personal summons, like that of the fiery cross,
would scarcely be needed. Romance and gruesome horror are strangely
blended here; for was it not from the walks in close proximity to the
castle that the fair Lady Mary Graham, only daughter of stout old
Malise, Earl of Strathearn, espied her future husband, John Moray of
Drumshergart