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 some improvements of the castle, displayed an
eccentric love of uniformity. "The earl and his gardener directed all in
the garden and pleasure-grounds upon the ancient principle of exact
correspondence between the different parts, so that each alley had its
brother--a principle now renounced by gardeners. It chanced once upon a
time that a fellow was caught committing some petty theft, and, being
taken in the manner, was sentenced by the Bailie M'Wheeble of the
jurisdiction to stand for a certain time in the baronial pillory, called
the _jougs_, being a collar and chain attached to the uppermost portal
of the great avenue which led to the castle.
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