THE HOUSE OF FALKLAND.

Otago Witness, Volume 12, Issue 2639, 12 October 1904, Page 72

THE HOUSE OF FALKLAND.

• Lord Mirian Stuart, younger brother of the young Maiquis of Bute, celebrated his coming of age a few weeks ago at Falkland Palace, or, as it is more correctly called, the House of Falkland. The heritage left him by his father, the late Marqnis of Bute, is ona to delight the heart of any man of one-and-t^venty, especially one with the training and temperament possessed by its young laird. Enormous sums of money w-sre lavished by the late jMr-i'iuis on the eld pile. Perhaps "lavished" is not quite the right word to -use, for although the golds was freeh .poured forth, it was as an historian, "an antiquarian, and. rbeve all, a patriot that Lord Bute spent his money on Falkland. The royal pal.'.cs is h.ter■woven with the whole Slewait stcry, and it was fitting that a Stuart should restoie and own it.

The difference in the spelling of the vname Avas a fa-.oiirite subject v.iiri Lord Bute. The present form :s French, nc& Scottish, and was introduced when the sJucVlscs Queen Mary return^. J from her long sojourn in> France, where the letter "at is ivnfeaown. The original ram-a sprang, as did so many oth-er surnames, from the occupation or culling of the man vho fiist raised himself above his compeer?. This man, in the times of the old Bor- | der fighting, when the gentkuien arnnsed thcmselv-es in grim games of war, was Alan the Steward' of Scotland. H:s work it was to kesp the marches against the English, accl stoutly that woik Vas done. j One of his sons. John FftzAlan, became I ancestor of the Earl of Amndel, nor\ represented by the- Duke of Norfolk. Ani other descendant, Walter, in his turn tha St-sward, married Prince&s Marjoiy. daughi ter of- Robert the Bruce.

After the death of David Bruce the croTm passed to his nephew. Robert, son. of Marjory and Walter. Bobart II of Scotland was the first King of the House of Steward, or Stewart, a3 it came to be spelfc. His son, Robert 111, had a curious fancy for the island of Bute. He lived and died) there, and created his eldest son and heir Duke of Rothesay. His baseborn son, Oohn Stewart, became Sheiiff and Lord of Bute," and his. descendants aie the Marquises of Bute to-day.

Prince Da\icl, Duke of I'othesay, half brother as Le -was of John Stc-waid. met his frightful death in that very cattle of Falkland which the Smarts now pos^t.^.

It is- said' he was. starved to death in. the. gloomy dtogeon below- th"4. existing^ walh^ -. birt '^as^tl^^tragecly^ -occurred jel' handreti ; years" 'before' "f&» L "^!Pobable'^dalbe v of 'the" : ' : \oldes£;jgart of ~tke* present ' building,"- .there-; '* . .is- ~n<y- fear " ofrt he princely ' ghost .troubling visitors novrr-days, " > - Margaret of, England, • iKing Henry VTEtfs -termagant sister, wept- angry tears-. :it Falkland. She was taken there in the first days of her widowhood, almost beside herself when she found that, although the moilier cf tie two-year-old King, she was to hsre 330 : share in the government • of Scotland. That son, James V, died at Falkland 30 years, afterwards — &ed of a ■ broken .. heart, they said, when they . toldt him that his child was *• girl instead ci the iseir.he longed- for, wha might' hare retrieved his ceantry's misfortuiies. - "The ' crown' came \wifh a, lass," he 'Silinjoared, meaning- Trincess Marjosy Brace: "It wiD. T go- with; a. las^/' Aad. go it did, for - the Stiart Kings' henceforth were styled "of England," awi the- isdependent cr-own Bruce won' at Bannockbuxn passed o»t of sight for _ever. ' .■ ..^Cromvre^,- laid . siege to FalMand, , arfA' felled its: oafes t^Suild'bisrflita^l^atFocth:^ CharlißS- ' IJv soogkt.. shelter tbese -in, the 43»a^o«s..d<iys..bef8Te*tlie battle of Dtiii-' ,bar, ,&nd Bice«- his .time no Eoyat.litad h&s rested -,Y*ry wjxely, and. 1 carefully-- - has the' old palace been restored.. Lord ' Bute- himself - ;arianged each, detail ' aaid , \planned oat the, work, wMch - was' not finished at his daath. • One- of his pet ideas was- to~ colfcfcfc- into its library" th-^ records; of "the Kingdom," as the County of- Fife is fondly called by the ifrrelvrs . therein. " > 1 To Falkland he removed many bocks which seemed belong -rather to Fife than to his ' libraries in London, Cardiff, or ' Mount Stuart— notably the' works of "Sir -Tsavid Lindsay of the" Mount', one of the Scottish poets - who knew the- old palacfc . well, a^d the very pro-sale p"ose of &'ii\ ' John' Scott of Scoistarvit (he was Lhe author of "The Staggering, State of Scots Statesmen,'' 1652}, wh^> lived close by, on the- v further side of the Lomond- Law.