Robert I. of Scotland, in the year 1376, with his daughter, to John
Lyon, Lord Glammis, chancellor of Scotland. Great alterations and
additions were made to the building by Patrick, Earl of Strathmore, his
lineal heir and successor: these improvements, according to the above
cited plan, a date carved on a stone on the outside of the building, and
other authorities, were made in the year 1606, and not in 1686, as is
said in an old print engraved about that time, and from which our view
is copied. The architect employed on this occasion, as tradition
reports, was Inigo Jones; indeed, the work seems greatly to resemble
Heriot's Hall at Edinburgh, and other buildings designed by him. The
great hall was finished in the year 1621; it is a handsome room with a
carved ceiling, adorned with heads and ornaments in stucco. Among the
apartments shown to visitors, are a wardrobe containing a curious
collection of old state dresses; the armoury, in which are preserved the
sword and coat of mail of Macbeth, as well as some articles supposed to
have been carried off by Malcolm's murderers, and found in the Loch of
Forfar, during the last century; and the chapel built about 1500, the
furniture of which remains in its original state. Here also are about
one hundred portraits; among which is a large picture, in a carved
frame, representing Earl Patrick and his three sons; in the background
is a view of the castle, as it was in the year 1683. At that time there
were three gates leading from the park. Some idea may be formed of the
extent of this establishment from the circumstance of eighty beds being
made up within the house, for the Pretender and his retinue, during
their sojourn here, besides those for the inferior servants, in the
offices out of doors. The forfeiture of the estate was prevented by the
earl's brother being killed at the head of his regiment on Shiremore.

In the courtyard is shown a stone, on which is engraved a cross and
divers figures, said to allude to the murder of Malcolm, and the death
of the murderers, who attempting to cross the Lake of Forfar, then
slightly frozen over, the ice broke, and they were drowned: this stone
is described and engraved by Mr. Pennant, in his Tour through Scotland.

By way of enlivening these historical data, and as an epigrammatic
conclusion to our description, we subjoin a pleasant little anecdote
related by Sir Walter Scott, of a certain old Earl of Strathmore, who,
in superintending