could give, I omit. Now for my own part in the mys tery. As I had never before been in a haunted house my curiosity was greatly excited; and I persuaded Lefroy to come up and sit up with me in my bed-room. He did so. The noise began much later than usual that evening at least, we did not hear it till about half past twelve P.M. or a quarter before one A.M. It was as if someone was striking the walls with a hammer, or mallet, muffled in flannel. It began at first slowly, with a distinct interval between the blows, then became more rapid; but afterwards followed no rule, but was slow or rapid as caprice dictated. The noise did not appear to come always from the same part of the house. Sometimes it was heard faintly, as if at a distance; at others it became startlingly near, but seemed always below the room we were in. It was much louder than I expected. I think if I had been outside the house I should have heard it. I passed three other days at Ewshott House, and heard the same noise two nights out of the three. When all was still and asleep, there was something uncomfortable-not to say fearful-in hearing this hollow muffled noise, moving about the house, and coming at times so near that I expected to see the door open and some person come in, though no footsteps were ever heard. It usually began about eleven and half-past eleven P.M. But one evening I heard it a quarter before ten P.M., before any of the family had gone upstairs. The noise generally continued, with intervals, for about two hours; and I think there was a slight interval between every five blows, but

am not quite sure on this point. I never heard it during the day, though when every member of the family was out, and all was quiet, I would listen; nor did I ever hear it, except in one instance above named, before ten P.M.

"A slight interval between every five blows has been mentioned, but it is not mentioned that you should infer from this that there was any regularity in the striking of those five blows; on the contrary, the time was very uncertain and irregular. It was when the blows followed each other most rapidly that the noise was loudest. It was only at first that there was any regularity in the interval between the blows. I tried in vain to form a probable conjecture as to the cause of the noise"-after suggesting possible causes Capt. Frazer proceeds" but the want of regularity in the sound, and its locomotive powers, render it improbable that any of these should be the real cause. And besides which they would all be heard in the daytime, if listened for; but the mysterious sound never has been, I believe.

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'Although always much interested in anything partaking of the marvellous, I have no faith in superhuman agency in these matters. Still, it was impossible at night to hear this unaccountable sound without a slight feeling of depression, and I think it would have an (ill) effect upon a person of weak nerves or mind.

"Such is all I can recollect of what I heard myself, but the stories were numerous. One night, about twelve, the lady of the house was sitting in the drawing-room reading, all the family had retired to rest, when the

noise was heard close to a glass door (leading to another room) so loudly that she got up and went to the spot that it seemed to proceed from; but nothing, of course, was seen. There was a strange story connected with the room I slept in; it was told me by my friend Lefroy.

"Many years ago he came home for the holidays. from school, and slept the first night there. About the middle of the night, he was awaked by a very loud noise, as if a cart, heavily laden with iron bars, was passing slowly along the path under the windows, which were in the front of the house, and looked towards the park. He threw open the shutters and window; it was a bright moonlight night; but he could see nothing, though the noise continued for a short time after. When he mentioned all this next morning he was laughed at for his pains. Some years after this, however (I think Lefroy said eleven), an uncle of his slept the first night of his arrival in this very room. When he came to breakfast next morning, in reply to hopes that he had slept well, &c., he said, 'It is a curious thing, but I was awaked by a cart, laden as if with iron, rattling under my windows; but it was so pitch dark I could not see anything.'

"One more observation about the mysterious sounds: there are some noises which, though very loud, the ear, from a long habit of judging of and weighing them, knows to be at a great distance; but this noise seemed to me (as a general rule) to become loud or faint, not so much from any change in the intensity of the blows

as from a change of distance and position. And I am borne out in this remark by Lefroy, who mentioned that when several members of the family were stationed at different parts of the house, their accounts as to the loudness of the sound and its distance from them generally differed.

"I have now told you, in a somewhat lengthy style, all I can call to mind on the subject. I thought it better to put down facts as they occurred to me, and leave you, should you deem them suited to your purpose, to condense and arrange them as you pleased."

Thus ends Captain Frazer's account of this mysterious affair. Ewshott House, we are given to understood, is still inhabited; but whether still troubled by these unaccountable noises we are unable to learn.

GLAMIS CASTLE.

IN the FIRST SERIES of these stories and traditions some allusions were made to the mystery, or rather many mysteries, attached to Glamis Castle, the Forfarshire seat of the Earl of Strathmore. But the legends investing this immense and ancient palace are inexhaustible. In point of antiquity and historical interest the Castle is one of the most remarkable edifices in the kingdom. "Although dilapidated and dimmed in its original

splendour," writes Dr. Beattie, "its feudal air of strength and haughty defiance, and its sullen gloom of seclusion in an antique forest, is a subject peculiarly adapted for the pencil, and for exciting the imagination of the poet."

Glamis Castle, or rather some portions of the magnificent old edifice, is of immense antiquity; indeed, it claims to be the most ancient inhabited castle in Scotland; but it has undergone, save in the central tower, manifold repairings and rebuildings. The first legend which lends historic importance to the place is that Duncan was there murdered by Macbeth, "Thane of Glamis," even the very room in which the deed was done having been pointed out formerly, whilst in the armoury of the Castle the sword and the shirt of mail worn by Macbeth are still shown. Local tradition points to the Hunter's Hill, an eminence overlooking the Castle, as the spot where Malcolm the Second was attacked by the assassins.

The Glamis estates first came into possession of the Lyon family in 1371-2, when Sir John Lyon, feudal Baron of Fortevist, secretary and son-in-law to Robert the Second, received the grant of the lordship from that monarch. A long series of tragedies, we are informed, overgloomed the Lyons "from the moment they brought to Glamis their lion cup," the original of Scott's Blessed Bear of Bradwardine, and a kind of family palladium, like the Luck of Edenhall. Sir John Lyon, who was Great Chamberlain of Scotland, fell in a duel in 1383. His son, the grandson of King Robert the Second,