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Connected with the Earldom were some of the bravest
warriors and most accomplished statesmen of the ages in which it
flourished; and at Court the holders of the title took precedence over
most other sister titles, while many of the Earls enjoyed, in a
remarkable degree, the confidence of their Sovereign. “But every dog has
its day;” and although we can trace the history of those feudal lords
over a period of five hundred years, and that during a time when
Scotland was boiling with internal divisions, yet the day arrived when
the Earldom passed away and was known no more. Among the first Earls of
note was Murdacus,- who held the title about the year 1260. He had two
daughters; the eldest was married to Cumin, Lord of Badenoch, who
succeeded to the Earldom by right of his wife. Cumin was succeeded in
the Earldom by Walter Stewart, brother of the High Steward of Scotland,
who was married to the youngest daughter. Walter had two sons, Murdoch,
his successor, and John Menteith of Rusky. Murdoch the Earl had one son,
Allan, who married the heiress of Macduff, Earl of Fife. Allan had one
daughter, married to Patrick- Graham of Kilbride, second son of Patrick
Graham of Kincardine. This Patrick Graham was the founder of the Earls
of Menteith of the name of Graham, and whose posterity were Earls
thereof for nine successive generations.
The Earldom became extinct in the year 1694. The last
Earl, William, dying without issue, bequeathed his estates to the family
of Montrose. The first cadet of the Menteith family was Sir John Graham
of Kilbride, ancestor of the Grahams of Gartmore; and the last of any
note was the ancestor of the Grahams of Gartur.
Local tradition assigns the decline of the Earldom to the
cruelty of its last possessor, and among current stories the undernoted
is believed to be the most authentic, while it illustrates, in a
remarkable degree, the character of the times. A man of the name of
Graham having stolen a horse in the neighbourhood, exposed the animal
for sale at St. Michael’s fair, then held on Miling farm, on the shores
of the lake. Some of Graham’s friends being present at the fair, told
him the owner of the horse was on his track, and advised the thief
instantly to leave the market. Graham, acting on the advice, asked a
young lad of the name of Blair, who was standing by, to hold his horse
till he transacted some trivial business, and immediately took to the
hills. Meantime the owner of the horse arrived, and finding the
unsuspecting Blair in possession, had him handed over to the tender
mercies of the Earl, who was present at the fair; and in those “good old
times” the Earl, who had the power of life and death in his own hands,
the executioners *in his own household, and the gallows on his own
domains, ordered the lad to be instantly hanged. The Blairs at this time
were a numerous party, both in Monteith and Aberfoyle, and many of the
lad’s friends being present at the fair, they made a strong
remonstrance, but in vain. The sentence was instantly carried into
effect on the Gallows 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 crumbling 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 Talla. |
