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the Gloume or Gloom; and there has been much jocularity about the Castle of Gloom, in the parish of Dollar, or Dolour, and beside the stream of Griff, or Grief. Colin, first Earl of Argyle, did not like the name, and procured an Act of Parliament in 1489 to change it to Castle Campbell. It may be given as a specimen of a species of document which at that period pretty frequently occurs in the statute-book.

"Oure sourane Lorde of his Riale autorite at the desire and supplicacioun of his cousing and traist consalor Coline Erle of Ergile Lord Campbele and Lerne his Chancellare has chengeit the name of the Castell and place quhilk was callit the Gloume pertenyng to his said cousing, and in this his present Parliament makes mutacioun and changeing of the said name, and ordaynes the samen Castell to be callit in tyme to come Campbele."

It is not likely that the great Macallum Mhor resided so often in a place where his power was bounded by an ordinary estate, as in his island fortalice at Loch Awe, or at Inverary, where he was monarch of the surrounding territory. There are traces, however, of the occasional residence of the family here. The author of the statistical account of the parish mentions, among the seignorial obligations of the feudatories of the domain, that "in some of the charters the vassals are taken bound to cary the wine used in the Castle from the port of Aloa, and in others to furnish horses to bring their superior and his family from Stirling." He mentions, apparently from acquaintance with the tenures themselves, that some buildings in the neighbouring village of Dollar are held by owners who, if they had to fulfil the original obligations in their titles, would have to be the hereditary bakers and butchers of the owners of the Castle, and supply coal for its fires, beer for its table, and oats for the horses of the men-at-arms.*

There is one curious piece of historical evidence of the occupation of the Castle. In 1556 John Knox had lifted his ecclesiastical banner against the Queen Regent and the Pope, had gathered round him a body of followers, and held, though not yet without considerable danger, open disputations. It was then that he was desired to minister to the English Church at Geneva; and having sent his female relations on before him, he determined to leave his friends in Scotland, and accomplish the perilous journey. In the mean time, in the words of the history generally attributed to his own pen, he " passed to the old Erle of Argyle who then was in the Castle of Campbell where he taught certain dayis. The laird of Glenurquhare being one of his auditouris, witted the said Earle of Argyle to retaine him still; but he, purposed upon his journey, wold not att that tyme stay for no requeast, adding That if God so blessed thei small beginnings that they continued in godlyness, whensoever they pleased to command him they should find him obedient;' but said That ones he must neadis visit that lytill flock which the wickedness of men had compelled him to leave;' and so in the month of July he left this realm and passed to France, and so to Geneva."†

We pass over to another historical epoch, nearly a century later. Cromwell had swept the King's army before him at Naseby, and the Royalist cause was doomed in England. Montrose, who proposed to bring his Highland army to England, was still beyond the Grampians, and he had to pass the well-organised forces of Baillie. In his way along the side of the Ochils to the memorable field of Kilsyth, he passed the gate of one of the stateliest of the fortresses of his hated adversary Argyll. The opportunity was too tempting to be overcome; and, indeed, he only pursued the system of warfare adopted by both sides, when he sacked and burned Castle Campbell.

*New Stat. Account, Clackmannan, 108.

The Works of John Knox, i. 254.

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