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)HE old Castle of Towie, of which the ruins of one tower alone remain, is seatedY/%$$ on an eminence, at the base of which runs the river Don, there a precipitousand rapid stream. It was built by the Forbes’s of Brux, and came into thepossession of their collateral descendants.

William Forbes of Towie was the son of William Forbes of LittleKildrummie; his son, Alexander, who succeeded him, married Christian Barclay, daughter ofthe Laird of Towie Barclay, by whom he had one daughter. He married, secondly, Janet,daughter of Patrick Gordon of Haddo, who became the mother of Alexander Forbes of Towie,in whose time the fearful tragedy connected with the Castle was enacted.

It has been a disputed point whether the event recorded by many authorities, namely, theburning of the family of the Laird, took place at Towie or Corgarff. Mr. Matthew Lumsdenevidently confuses the fact. He states that John Forbes of Towie, married, first, the daughterof John Grant of Ballendalloch, by whom he had a son, “ who was unmercifully murdered inthe Castle of Corgarlfe.” He proceeds to state, that after the death of his first wife, hemarried Margaret Campbell, daughter to Sir John Campbell of Calder; now, other authoritiesstate, that the lady so barbarously treated, was the said Margaret Campbell, but that she wasthe wife of his son Alexander, which disproves Mr. Lumsden’s assertion, that the son of thefirst marriage, was murdered in the Castle of Corgarff, or, at all events, that this murder, if itdid occur, had any connexion with the circumstances detailed in the ballad, and leaves no doubtthat Towie was the scene of the events which are therein recorded. Archbishop Spottiswoodinforms us, that “ anno 1571, in the north parts of Scotland , Adam Gordon, (who was deputyfor his brother, the Earl of Huntly,) did keep a great stir, and, under colour of the Queen’sauthority, committed divers oppressions, especially upon the Forbes’s, having killed ArthurForbes, brother to the Lord Forbes. Not long after, he sent to summons the house of Tavoy(Towie), pertaining to Alexander Forbes. The lady refusing to yield without direction fromher husband, he put fire into it, and burnt her therein, with children and servants being twenty-seven persons in all.