"MAR'S WORK"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 24

"MAR'S WORK"

THE CURSE OF ALLOA

TOWER

ACCOMPLISHED TO THE

SMALLEST DETAIL

' At. the upper end of Broad street, In Starling, stand the remains of a building that never fails to attract the wondering gaze of the visitor, writes a special contributor in the "People's Journal." Its impressive frontage, adorned with all the sculptured ornaments and embellishments of the best period of the Scottish Renaissance, suggests that it was intended to be the palace of some great lord. ..

.'.And so it was—but it was never completed, and the story of its erection and abandonment is linked up with the tragic history of one of the greatest of our Scottish families.

I'Ask any street urchin in Stirling what the building is, and he will tell you it is "Mar's Work." Quite probably he may also tell you that it was never completed because of a curse, for the facti are well known to-day to the folks of the neighbourhood.

■The .Hereditary curse, on the Erslunes, Earls of Mar, is one of the most striking "examples of the ancient family doom, and though its precise origin has been-a matter ot some little dispute, the fact of its absolute fulfilment has been observed and wondered at by the generations who have Been its inevitable operation.

"By many it. has been attributed to Thomas the Bhymer, the famous seer -who lived about the beginning of the thirteenth century; but there seem to be better grounds for the belief that it was; pronounced by the Abbot of Cambuskenneth, when the Earl of Mar, then Regent for Scotland, had deprived him of.his office and destroyed his abbey the stones of which, it is alleged, were taKen to build "Mar's Work."

Whatever may have been its origin, "the curse 1 of Alloa Tower," as it was called, was known and recorded long before its fateful piedictiong were fulfilled, and when the Mars were powerful in the land. The family had certainly gone through some of the vicissitudes that ■were the common lot of the early created ; nobles in •much-troubled Scotland, but towards" the end of the sixteenth century ■^h'e':ESrl.'of."Mar,"theri the twentieth of -^.'.^".SiJ.^Joyed: high office and extensive estates, and neither he nor his descendants for many generations had any reason to fear the "doom" or to have for it anything other than contempt. -.1 Yet everything to the likelihood .that it was on the head of the twentieth earl that the curse was launch- , cd. "Proud chief," it runs, "thou shalt Bit vi the place of the King. Thou shalt lute and destroy, and thy work shall be called, after thy name: but it shall be .cursed, and shall never be finished; Thou shalt have-riches and greatness, and shall.be true to thy Sovereign, and shalt raise his banner in the field of blood. Then when thy power is mightiest shalt come thy fall. Thy lands shall ,c §"[? n t° tne stranger, and thy titles shall lie among the dead. The branch that springs from thee shall see hia dwelling burnt, and his wife a sacrifice :^" i .,,-P aP >c '- His children numerous, but of little honour, and three born and grown shall never see the light. Thou must dree thy weird till horses shall be stabled in thy hall, and a weaver shall throw his shuttle in thy chamber of state. Thine ancient tower- Bhall loe a rum and a beacon until an ash sapling shall spring from its topmost ati ae. Then shall thy sorrows be ended, and" the sun--116 °L Eo}' alfcy beam on thee once more. The kiss of peace shall be given to thy Countess, though.she seek it not and the days of peace shall return to thee[and thine."

-It is; thus to be noted that a period c set to the curse, and that its operation Was to cease when certain', tHines accom PIi*«d. And accomplished they were, as history amply testifies, down to the smallest remarkable d«-

. The 20th Earl of Mar became Regent f^Vi? 6 "^^ty'of King James VI., co that he actually ruled in the place of a K™\. The p ro phecy that his work woud be called after his name, but would never be finished, obviously refers to the palace of Stirling, which remained uncompleted when the family beean tc fall upon evil days. This palace itself i B worth more* than passing notice, for in its whole design and conception it indicates an ambition in the light of which its fate was all the more pathetic. It stands in a very commanding (situation, close by the Parish Church, and near.the Castle and even in its unfinished state it has a very imposing appearance.

It. is easy to conceive the feelings of haughty contempt with which a man of Mar s power and influence would hear the prophecy. The highest noble i a ire land, wielding in his own hand the sceptre of the King, fawned upon and dreaded by high and low, what had he to fear from the vengeful outpourings of one amor- the many he oppressed? Yet as years passed, and one after another the events of the prophecy came . ttue. the fee.mg of arrogant indifference, if >. it among his descendants, must have riven way to a dreadful fatalism. After the lapse of twb centuries one car see in the history of the family how amazingly the recorded facts tally With the various predictions The downfall of. the family be<ran in 1715 when the Ear] of Mar raised the standard of the Pretender on the field of . Sheriffmuir.. That it was "a field of blood,' in the words of the prophecy, every Scottish schoolboy knows. The Rebellion of .1715 was shortlived,, and the fate of those who took part in it was swift and sometimes terrible. It was a tragedy to the Mars, whose title and estates were confiscated, afterwards becoming the property of the than of Fife. So the curse worked rapidly when it got begun! In that one brief chapter of history is chronicled the fact that his titles lav amonp- the dead, as had been foretold, and his lands were given to the stranger. . .Bnt.it-i s perhaps in the smaller details of the prophecy that one is most keenly interested. What about the pre- ' diction for .example that "the branch which springs from thee shall see his dwelling'burnt, and his wife a sacrifice in the flames"?

In 1801 John Francis Erskine. ■ the .miufeoi' of the rebel Earl who had lost the title, was residing in the ancient family home of Alloa Tower. A careless gervant" left a candle too near a bed, and the_ place was set on fire. Miss Erakine being'so severely burned that ehe died ; immediately afterwards. It only remains to be added, as regards this part -of the prophecy, that there were three ■children in this family who were blind ifroiri their Jbirth, and therefore "never ■•aw-light; "■"-;- ■ ■■-•;

There- still remain the final predictions that horses would be stabled in the hall of Alloa Tower, and that a weaver would throw his shuttle in tlte Chambei of "State: '"' . :

;;.;If the Tower was to become a ruin, the fact that it should shelter horses is not so remarkable, after all—it actually occurred when a troop of cavalry were accommodated there durinc the war with -France, when there was an alarm of an invasion. But the other prediction was much more wonderful, and its fulfilment is recorded, for in later days it was found

that a-weaver who had been evicted from his house in Alloa had established himself in the old Tower, and there, in the ancient State Chamber, he set up his loom and plied his shuttle. It has already been noted that an end of the ourse was predestined, and that the portent would be the growth of an asb sapling from the stones of the Tower. This was actually observed crowingv and flourishing from the topmost stone between 1815 and ■ 1820, and there were many who took it to indicate a change in the Mar fortunes.

True to the precise words of the prophecy, the sunshine of Royalty beamed once more on the family, George IV. restoring the title when he visited Scotland in 1822. There even followed the "unsought kiss of peace," for when, in after years, the Earl's wife met Queen Victoria by chance in Stirling Castle, the Queen kissed her. So in course. of time the Mare "dreed their weird," and passed through their tribulations. But who can say whether these were the ocoult operations of a curse, or merely the ordaised events that a clairvoyant eye had been able to see? .-■

It is interesting to note another case in which a noble Scottish house' passed through a oeriod of "doom." The curse rested on the Earl of Moray, and it took the curious form that he dared not live at Narnaway Castle, the family home on the Findhorn. Though any one else of the family could stay there, so surely as the Earl came he died.

So for many years the mansion that was built beside the ancient castle remained unoccupied, till one of the Earls, bold enough to test the prophecy, found that the weird was dreed. And now my Lord may safely come to Forres and Darnaway.