THE EARL OF AIRLIF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2445, 23 January 1901, Page 64

THE EARL OF AIRLIF.

In the district embraced by Dundee on one side and Montrose on the other the news of the death of the Earl of Airlie was received with undisguised sorrow. For some 400 years the Ogilvys were connected with the district, and in 1875 the deceased Earl's father was made a burgess of Dundee. This noblemr.n was deeply interested in North American cattle ranches, and while on a visit to Denver, in 1881, he was attacked with sickness and died. He was only 56 years of age. In the country districts Lord Airlie was an especial favourite. He was a generous landlord, and he Lad ever a kind word for those with whom he came in contact. He greatly favoured out-door exercises, and was an especially fine boxer. It is told to-day by his tenants that he once offered to box anyone for a farm. Cortachy Castle was always open to rich and poor, and picnic parties were ever welcome. The Cortachy sports are famous in the North, and two years ago, it may be noted, Lord Airlie had as his guest at these games the chief whom he adored, Lord Roberts. At St. Andrew's the news was also of great interest, for in Andrew Lang's Grey Town Lord Airlie's two sisters, Lady Gresilda Cheape and Lady Maud White, are resident. It was Lady Roberts who conveyed the sad intelligence to Lady Esther Smith (Lady Airlie's sister), who in turn informed Lady Cheape, at Strathtyrum House. The Eajl of Airlie came of fighting stock. In most of the wars that unsettled Scotland the Ogilvys took prominent parts. At Pinkie, in 1547, the Master of Ogilvy was slain, and with him many members of the house. At Kilsyth the charge of Ogilvy's Horse won the day. At Philliphaugh the Ogilvjs— at their head the boyish Lord Ogilvy — distinguished their house once more. Ogilvy's Life Guards, with the Earl of Airlie at their head, were a power after the Restoration ; and when the Stuart King marched against William of Orange, at Salisbury, the Earl of Airlie was head of the two hundred soldiers who acted as the King's bodyguard. In the Stuart rebellions the bonnie house of Airlie was " sair broken," and it was in the " Forty-Five," or rather after it, that Lady Ogilvy escaped from the country and took refuge in France. Culloden was lost ere her ladyship fled. She embarked at Dover. But the " hounds " were after her, and overtook her on board a vessel. Provided with a miserable print, they boarded the packet, and were met by her ladyship. Was Lady Ogilvy on board? She looked at the. sketch, and declaring that she knew her ladyship, and that they could have no doubt of her if they once met her, as the picture was a perfect likeness, she bowed the gentlemen off. She returned surreptitiously later to give birth to her son, so that he might be able to claim his own, and not be called an alien. The superstition concerning the "Airlie music" is widely known and believed in. The late Misa Lyon, of Glen O^iL, a near

connection of the Lyons of Glammis, and a distant cousin of the Ogilvys themselves, ' used to tell the story of the last time it ! was heard at Cortachy .Castle. It was a dreary evening in September ; the family was absent. The housekeeper, who was of a practical turn of mind, and not in the least imaginative, heard what she took to be a German band playing before the front entrance, and turning to a maid — who also heard the sounds — bade her go to the kitchen and prepare some cocoa for the players, while she herself, taking a shilling in her , hand, went to the door, intending to pay them for their tunes and send them round ! to the back for refreshment. j But the gravel sweep before the door was tenantless. Had those German bandsmen gone round to the kitchen of their own j accord? They were nowhere to be seen ' down the long approach, nor to the right [or lef-t. The housekeeper stepped off to back. The men were not there. The r girl had poured out the steaming cocoa, I when suddenly the old tradition rushed J upon the women's minds. Was it the j " Airlie Music?" The cocoa remained un- > quaffed ; "the shilling was still in the house- , keeper's hand. A sort of horror fell upon ' the whole household — a horror which was deepened when they heard that their master, the eighth Earl of Airlie, had died that September 25, 1881. The late Earl of Airlie was a Scottish Representative Peer. His successor may be -the Marquis of Queensberry, the only Marquis in the kingdom who has not an hereditary seat in the House of Lords. The ! other Scottish Peers (excluding minors, residents in foreign countries, and octogenarians) who have not seats in the Lords are the Earls of Rothe's, Buchan, Lindsay, Dysart, Northesk. and Orkney, Viscount Strathallan, and Barons Sempill, Borthwick, Elibank, Belhaven, and Ruthven. i _________