Towns > Hamilton > 1878-79 - Naismith's Hamilton directory for 1878-79, including Bothwell, Blantyre, Uddingston, Motherwell, and Larkhall to which is added, A history of Hamilton and neighbourhood

14 X ANTIQUITIES.
William Duke of Hamilton deceased, was exempted
from all benefit thereof, and his estates forfeited, there
being reserved out of them £400 per annum to his
Duchess during her life, and after her death to each
of his four daughters and their heirs for ever. The
Castle of Cadzow seems to have been repaired at
different times. The keep, with the fosse around it,
a narrow bridge on the south over the fosse, and a
well inside, are still in good preservation, and are all
of polished stone of a reddish colour. Several vaults
and the walls, probably of the chapel, are still visible.
Cadzow Castle is celebrated in Scott's fine ballad —
"When princely Hamilton's abode,
Ennobled Cadzow's Gothic towers,
The song went round, the goblet flowed,
And revel sped the laughing hours.
Then, thrilling to the harp's gay sound,
So sweetly rung each vaulted wall.
And echoed light the dancer's bound,
As mirth and music cheered the hall.
But Cadzow's towers, in ruins laid,
And vaults by ivy mantled o'er,
Thrill to the music of the shade
Or echo Evan's hoarser roar."
The Castle of Darngaber {i. e., the "house between
the waters," or, as some have supposed, the " hiding
place of the goats,") in the S.E. side of the parish is
said to have been built by Thomas de Hamilton, son
of Sir John de Hamilton, Dominus de Cadzow. Its
ruins stand on a small knoll at the extremity of a
tongue of ]and where two rivulets meet. The founda-
tions only of this ancient fortress can now be traced.
They are entirely of flat shingly stones, without lime,
and seem never to have been subjected to a tool.
Small vaults have been discovered, which are not
arched, but drawn together as conduits sometimes are.