THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY,‹-OCTOBER 27, -1954.-
THE WORLD'S STRANGEST STORIES-No. 6
Cummings
THE MONSTER OF GLAMIS
P
lovely Vale of
Toont, or even its whereabouts.
ROUDLY set in the In the Mystery once it is all in the absence Strathmore stands Room that none with a party of friends defer-
the great Castle of
Glamis, birthplace of Prin- can find
cess Margaret and seat of
a former Earl his Countess
mited to solve the mystery. As towels
+
a first step they hang
ut
of the winde ws of every When they went out to
the Queen Mother's family. horror that cannot kok ture was one window with
Bowes-Lyons, for six
the centuries.
It is a castle from a fairy tale. Its mellow stone walls, ten feet thick, its rounded towers, crowned with witch- hat pinnacles, make
think at once of magic case- ments, of romantic Princes under a spell.
Le legends.
Glamis
twentieth
there
of
be
destroyed
by
LOUIS WULFF
scclle
the
DI
1ive
In such a retting there must
legends and
Yet so heavy as the air ot are, mysterious real
Glumnis with the weight of past tales never
lis- proved nor
have persisted proved, which
mys eries that when Sir Walter
There through the centuries, tales that Scott spent a night
wrote that, despite history, arc till told in this sceptical w
"Mucleih Brani tury, mund the night xtimmering fire in Forfarshire struck him with more force that
ver when he saw 1} homes on an
evening KAZUMATY when the
blows Wind
chill stage. Through the Br trees
The Mystery Room, which has challenged the curiosity guests <! Investigators al Glamis so keenly, has nothing to do with "Macbeth" Il is--if it in fael exists--a family secret of the Bowes-Lyons.
Secret Chamber
They are tales of the Mystery Noon.
10 sveret chamber cut into
the castle walls whose whereabouts are known to only three living people, the Earl of Strathmore, the heir to the title, and the estate factor
Glamis Costic
from towel hanging but . sent of carehong would fratra day the happel
du:duru ܀
A church sinaltacy supplies esmo nee which may support the
་་་་
it gont of a seret terror handlest generation by generation
to the Howe Lyon family. He
ད、
The Binding of Brecon of 77
years ago who, on a vist; ta the noticed that dis host Cartie
One day seemed always sad. he
venture to speak to him ads at the mom, asking if irre
slu was anything he couti
help him with regard to 11 Much Touched
1
to
Strathmore." records Mr Augustus Hare, who spent nurt time Investigating the was much Glous
hauntings.
touched by his appeal, but sald that no one coat ever help him in that matter."
In 1537 Janel Douglas, widow of the sixth Lord Glamis.
Was exeruled on Cantle Hill, Edin-
t burgh, fur witchcraft Against King James V of Scotland, on Dr F. G. Lee, a Scottish divine an indictmrut afterwards
alories fessed to be entirely false, and who investigated my
con-
of the supernatural lost century. fanciful folk have suggested that tells how strange noises coming the
Khostly noises heard AL
is known all from a certain chamber so dis- Glamis
the world over as the scene of turbed the Lord Strathmore of the
may be the echoes of carpenter's hammering an
Shakespeare's "Macbeth" Some the day that he went with they built her scaffold, mithorities claim it as the oldest party of friends to the inhabited house in Britain, and unlockert
250972,
in the Grent Hall (54ft. by back in a dead faint at what he
is only
21f. in.)
Imagine the ghost of
within. Afterwards be ordered the Duncan calling for vengeance, doorway to be bricked up, nor One room is known to this day out h
ever be induce 1 spruk of Jiis experience.
as King Malcolm's Room.
But according to the learned
authors of the "Architecture of Scotland," a work which traers
But there are two other more sterles Lalci of the door and fell macnbre the
One Mystery Room of Glamis. version has it that on a Sunday evening, about a hundred years before the death of Janet, the 1. Clemis nf the pay, a man " bigh temper, devote gambling, could find no one play dice or cards with him, and zmongest he would play the onc cise Devil himself it no would partner hin.
Wall Safe?
10
the history of every important The old folk who live round castle north of the border, no Girmis will tell you--and leave (1 not part of the present buildings you guessing whether reaches farther back than the they belive it themselves--wha, 15th century, long after Duncan it was that terrorised the Lard and his tourderer were laid to of Glamis
in the old days of the clan fouds a party of Ogilvies fleeing from their enemies, the Lind-
POCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER
"Confess, Miss Fanshowe, that you too sometimes have a strange feeling that we've been here BEFORE !!”
says, came to Glamis asking for shriler th protection.
The Lord of that day let them into
the In chamber deep in
of the Chustle and, locking the in. left them there to starve. There their skeletons lie to this day as they died, some in the net of gnawing the fle-h Irum thei: own arms, So the eld folk
say.
(23
an early form of wall sate, secure, in accordance with
to
10
Ghostly Game Promptly the Devil arrived: and, of course. claimed Lord lamis's soul at the end of the
Since then
the
erring
Kaune. Lord condestined to play ghostly cards in the secret room Sunday night throughout
avery eternity.
Most terrifying of all of Glamis legends is that Blomster.
Because of a family perhaps in for that
Samne
eurse
on
Sunday
gambling-at certain
nesses
:
the
the
16
"Phew!
NOT THIS
No
SPEED LIMIT: 2 MPH
NOT TOO BUSY
MADE IN
GERMANY
MAXIMUM CEILING : 10 FORT
Near thing! Beginning to think that Mr. France imagined he was
at a DISurmament Conference!"
London Express Bervice
NATHANIEL GUBBINS
SUPPOSE every man,
apart from the com pleto cynic, has Ideal man.
an
To which I can only say lot fools who like work do it and leavo Ronald Burn and mo in pence, And so far ne growing food is concerned we would all bo much healthier If we lot Some revere men of ac- nature do it for us like the man tion, like soldiers and who lived on grass and reached
saflors and explorers, others anchormous age eating his way placidly through Clapham Com- would like to imitate great mon. writers and artists, and often do. Even the great But although I agree so pro
foundly with Ronald Burn's industrialists have little attitude towards work I would worshippers at their feet. prefer to be idle with plenty of Foolish peoplo ́ad mir o money, dynamic politicians, always
When most people are asked forgetting that dynamic whose personality they would politicians are usually gift have preferred if they had ed orators, and that gift- lived in the past most will say
Hannibal, or Alexander, ed orators are frequently Michelangelo. I have heard rogues and deceivers.
some depraved characters Inv.
Nero
the or Henry So far as I am concerned Eighth; and a timid little spin- she wished My ater once told me
she had been Cleopatro,
our
or
you can have the lot, Ideal man is Ronald Burn, who, according to evidence
If I had my chance of liv- offered in court at Stockton- ing ngain in the past I would
on-Tees, gave up work 20 have preferred the role of the dissolute young squire, haunting years' ngo and has taverns and gaming tables and never done # stroke being a devil in a brawl. since.
Many will disagree me, but in reply I say the believers in hard
may
I would have been tall and aristo- lean. My handsome, with eratie face would have been that lined with dissipation and my [ work tired, cynical eyes weary
same
tired eyca
and
be placed in two beauty and fashion. categories those who are
But the too stupid to appreciate would have lighted up at the of all the fresh-faced leisure and the perfect sight
dalry-muids on the estate, peace of wanting little and when I had rained them all and doing as little as possible stung their protesting to get H, and those, like out of their little cottages, the big industrialists, who would have settled down to an believe in the hard work of old age of port and gout
listened to the humbled pen- others to increase their suntry reciting "God bless profits.
hard
In answer to this the work propagandists wlli ask: "If everybody behaved like Ronald Burn who would build the houses, ships, aircraft, and motor cars, grow food, and dig coal?"
I WHISTLED IN
GORKI
STREET
☆ And the Muscovites stared
N
stared at me
as though I were crazy!
the
chauffeurs.
By George Whiting
parents
and
#quire and all his relations" at every harvest thanksgiving.
Bumbling Letters
Dere Mra Mifin,
Y
VOU Wils wonderful eglo Friday though I was sorry to ear you may be goin on TV to give beauty Ints for workin women. I reckon you ought to think twice before you appear in a million omes as you ave a way with men and you might drive somebody orf is cad and Its all very git a nasty letter. well for the postman you ought personality
to
lo зду express yore
in a new medium but surely you expressed it enough when you played the mother in East Lynn and got a piece all about yoreself in the local paper ended a star is born. They say you are goin to be a smash it in Ay
Fever so wot moro do you want?
Although I am lookin for- word to yore autumn Benson
which will start with an octo- ber
ale and pigs fry party I
No, nobody followed us, there dont reckon you ought to do were ino microphones under the the dance of the 7 valls after-
words as
I once seen this every beds, and we went where we Wre
the pictures for on night liited even if none of us know week and dont reckon its the where we were going. Maps of right sort of caper for 4 Moscow are not available, nor
are telephone directories.
it
My
3
respectable widow even if you
a man wot will inject is marrers with water to win the first prizo at the orticultural show will, think of anythink.
Wot about gittin spliced up?
yra truly G.. Bumbling (andy man).
INETY-SIX hours in through our martinis and salted Moscow with Ar- pemuls under the bright lights of a chandelier in the ballroom senal should be good of what was once the home of a for a few drinks at Russian sugar king.
Nobody spics on the ambassa my local, but, frankly, I am already finding it a little dorial staff but I should say
If you want anything in your are going to cut it down to 6 vails to make it proper. I the dificult to
cope with the they are well "fooked after" by
Intourist hotel you must apply suppose it was the postmons demands to "tell
all squad of Russian me
The only people allowed to drive of vodka for £3. A not-so-notty to the Service Bureau on to first idea and all I can say is that
floor whether It As a pot of Would suiting cars out there are holders of Item of gent's theabout Russia."
extension of visa, caviar, an retribution
lleences-and Sil, one has cot's impres- Russlan
to get have set me back £100.
Moscow, so far as I am con- ticket for the ballet or an inter- night alone. Min: comprises chiefly a one of these you have to undergo
Soviet footballer. view with intervals bad base of flu, a thick head a three-hour examination, in cerred, in a city of violent con-
and marvels. They refuse
you
nothing-but the first-born of the family after a bounteous Russian ban Russian, on the intricacies of trast-fmuck
I ave_bin__readin about flyin with drain pipas-you-got-nowher མ་ becomes a mouster, a vampire, qust; a smell in the nostrils from the Internal combustion engine. The smells,
I tried for three days to come ants wot ave a mass oneymoon Russian drains or maybe lack So that takes care of inquisitive running smack on to the pave within talking distance of a in the of weather. groans That there is a secret chamber whose
Afterwards screams and
ments are strictly sewage. the Castle seems to be well count for strange notes heard of same; and feeling of acute foreigners.
the And yet
huge new Russian boxing official, but they all the males drop dead and the established. Earl Patrick, who by so many independent wit-sympathy with British diplomats Carrots came into the conver- completed the rebuilding of the
Castle.
building, topped off beat me in the end. Believe me, females start a new life with This who are about to face the Rus- sation when we talked about the university house In 1684, left behind him re
in the reddest a game. creature, it is said, cannot be slan winter on a diet of carrets. Moscow winter beginning as of with brilliant and stars at night, those Russian comrades have get another usband. Good lord wat
in the everything tied
tied up a Book of Record, in which he destroyet or left to die, so it is
now, During the next seven is probably the finest
tape you ever saw, details his work and mentions
The drivers the responsibility of the head of
world. freeb months
vegetable closet which he karl made the family to ace that it
supply runs cut except for There are 100-yards wide, ten-
of jagged contrast, Jane streets, crammed with cars thes, like everything else, are within the walls. This may, of murtured-but kept from public
About those carrots.... carrots, course, have been intended as sight-in the Mystery Room. heard about them at a reception Shopping is another problem. of all shapes and sizes up to the suite, at £7 a day, consisted of
Glamis Castle has been open the to visitors since 1950. In the they gave us after we had got It can take you an hour to buy swank Zis and Zim jobs at, I a huge and elaborate Victorian" custom of the times, jewels or
past four years no one has found past the tough-looking Russian the morning bread in a Soviet was told, £1,100 apiece to the sitting room, a clean and com- cop posted outside the British shop. You queus up to order comrades. I gaw not a colitary fortable bedroom and a smelly bathroom and "omees" in which private papers.
any sign of the Mystery Room. Embassy, presided over by Sir your provisions, you queue up bleycle. But I saw indescribably the water ran in brown and
which are strictly Does it exist?
William Hayter-whose 'job, again to pay the bill, and you smelly slums whi Perhaps only the Queen Lat
1 am concerned, you can queue up a third time to colleet off the tourist routes. 14
sictions Mother's brother, the
To
Metro your parcel.
cathedral-like marvels of archi Lord Strathmore, knows.
"We live here like a bunch of
tecture, spotlessly clean. owner may, Recording to tradi- Next Saturday: From Prison Robinson Crusoes," said one of
dark and light blue trains are There are no pubs. The only line if you adat poked yore nose 'Sir William's staff, as wo gol
But bar I discovered after a series into my affairs and I dve now star quic
of delarmined
was decided efforie
follow The shops, all State run, are drunks were lying unheeded in
regardless, located. In the ornate Sovietskla wherever it leads plentifully stocked, but dreb and the streets.
nasty Hotel, where our Parliamentary As for people writin dreary, with no attempt et cap- Food? Lashings of is by delegation has been housed in a letters to me they wont do it a turing customers with window four-hour banquet given us by displays. The only private onter- the Moscow Dyrumos we made welter of Russian hospitality. 2nd time if I ever git my ands
And the chief thing I remember on them, priaz
I raw came from Moscow do with caviar, smoked salmon, about that particular bar is that "barrow
girls selling grapes on beetroot soup, pork in aspic,
Re my autumn season patty the street corners.
steaks, ilver in sour cream, hard the stools along the counter are
about five foot high-which and the dance of the 7 vally. It There wore queues for potatoes boiled eggs on sprats, breast of makes climbing down a bit of a was only supposed to be a joke
in butt, in Gorki Street, but the women chicken
After a
a tow vodkas. customers, trowally dressed in melons, mineral waters, vodka
Communications? There, too, shawls and head scarves, seamed and champagne.
socmed to be lightly crazy, to Western mind. The Russians, to pub telephone calls
to my
hotel,, Insisted
Whether its contents are in- nocent or
sinister as the 03 legends declare, no one outside the family knows,
Not even the wife of the
tion, know the secret
of
the
to Parliament.
MILK
present
keep.
gives your family a good start in life-
NESPRAY
ensures they
have the best
ANOTHER OF NESTLES GOOD THINGS
NESPRAY
50
Barrow girls
to have stacks of roubles
troubles to throw around.
GUM-pronounced as in "d
and run to time.
roasted
A bit mixed
fitful spasins.
arc
No pubs
The
hazel
Iny
I was surprised
Dere Mr Bumbling,
to sit yore lotter as its none of yore bimers A million whether. I go into
might omes on TV or not. I ave bin a mash it in wots
to
my
as the lat vall I remove is my stole, the 2nd my cardigan the ard my Jumper and then my apron, shoes and skirt when I shall reveal myself in my rumied petticoat. As promised I shant ba gumis the biggest shop in Within a couple of hours that I take them at the Central remove the 7th vall unless the world.
The Arsonal foot- this little muck we were treading trash Offlce, and that I.ret tako. my: stockins: orf · so`yore ballers and I spent three hours for home in our Russian nero-
out my intended conversa- xemarks about it bein improper walking round its two miles of plane which could explain then in triplicate. But as soon for a respectable"
widow only. shows w your mind works. - atone gallortos
souvenirs, outbreak of hangovers on our Booking
mentioned Arsenal they One, London
photographer at travels via. Minsk, Prague and
forgot about the carbon copies. And voro mind why dont himself hustled off to the pollee Brussols,
My final memory of Moscow is you, forgit all about the post-Y station doy flashing Al camera Ono shrewd move on the part at the unda wear department but of our Riswipes hosts, 1 thought, of walking along Gorki Street man and 18 martes endop was let off with amused smiles whs to make us listen to the whisting Dear Old Fals" and readin' about Insecs? First Tu "peaceful co-finding people staring at the spiders then its been and now when he explained that ho was 'spoogstent, before Wo, got to the though I were sens BEF: fiviri-anta, "If you read 'any””.
Arsertal's goalkeeper."
hartre, rate
about
Da. I
Foot
about
Handicapped by fake cute But I anjoyed the con nobody whistles in Moscow. think about the nasty, abity of Just over 11 jurte, the puppola the dancing And that is all I can tell you lady earwigs I dont want to okr
with the Dynamos wives, and about Rumia, except to mention od she singing of the soprano wa That Sainkov the
from the Bute Opera: inside-fort-latans 16 the BBC
nieband 52 wa Victor plow Friday Whart if "h" "did get a every fle
*
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