Summer at the Lake of Monteith

30 The Lake of Monteith.
lows hill, a small eminence on the farm of Miling. The
Blairs were so enraged that they mustered in strong force,
and tore down the gallows, declaring that it should never
"hing" another man in Monteith; while an old woman
. prophesied the downfal of the Earldom. She is said to
have told the Earl to his face that he would be the last of
his race, and that no other Graham should ever enjoy the
title; that his estates would pass away to the stranger; that
briars and thistles would grow rank in his rooms — the otter
make his home in the broken walls — and the jackdaw and
the owl build their nests amid the ruins. What effect this
imprecation had on the decline of the Earldom, I leave the
reader to judge; but the writer has had proof enough that
the latter part of it has been fulfilled with a vengeance.
Briars and thistles certainly grow rank around the crumb-
ling walls, and the otter roams free amid their dark recesses;
while the jackdaw and the owl flap their wings at pleasure
in the once lordly halls of Talk.