Lawers Estate was once the home of Lieutenant-General Robertson and he was all action man! He had served with some distinction in the War of 1812 and returned to Scotland sometime shortly after its conclusion. As Lawers was under renovation at that time he decided to seek accommodation in Edinbugh until Lawers was ready for himself and his black servant called “Black Tom.” He decided to rent a rather old, but beautiful mansion called the Wrychtishousis Mansion which stood in fashionable Gillespie Crescent.
Tom was given a room on the ground floor and settled in. However, his first night was very troubling. He had been known to imbibe quite frequently, and this night he had had a session with the “craitur.” In the wee sma’ hours of the morning, he awoke sweating and shaking with fear. Before him he saw, walking around the room, the figure of a headless woman holding a baby in her arms. He was petrified at seeing this apparition. The next day he recounted his experience to everyone he met.
The scene was re-enacted night after night, and in time people put it down to hallucinations caused by an excess of alcohol. Eventually Lawers became available and he and the General moved out.
Sometime thereafter the old mansion in Edinburgh was knocked down and replaced by the Gillespie Hospital however, during the demolition the workman on removing the floor boards in Tom’s room, came across a crudely hand-made coffin. Inside they found the remains of a headless, fully dressed, woman, and a child who was wrapped in a pillowcase. In the coffin they also found a pair of scissors and a thimble. Close by a note was found containing the written confession of the murderer who turned out to be the brother of James Clark. James had left home at the end of the 17th century and was killed in battle. His brother on hearing this news decided to dispose of his brother’s wife and child ensuring that he took control of the house! As the brother was no skilled craftsman the head of the lady fair was cut off to fit into the coffin! I would not meddle with him!
One of the workers at Lawers was Peter McOwan. One would not describe Peter as scholarly; perhaps more accurately, he was rather dense. Unlike many in the district he was functionally illiterate being unable to read or write. In those days, pay days were infrequent and many were paid only twice a year...and that was on good years! The estate factor, Mr. Watson, only appeared when business necessitated it when he would show up to collect the tenant’s rents and attend to the accounts. In order to keep himself current with what was owed him for his time, and to claim it from the overseer Mr. Ross, he developed a novel way of simple book keeping.
Peter lived in a small clachan called the Mains which was located where the Milton Burn met the north road to Crieff. After a day’s work on the estate he would return home via the Auld Smiddy wood and make for a certain tree. There he would take out his pocket knife and carve a notch in the tree, with each notch representing a day’s work. Rudimentary counting then accounted for the rest. On one occasion, he asked for payment from Mr. Ross, for many more days than were in the year! Mr. Ross was taken aback exclaiming, “Man, Peter, that’ll no correspond wi’ my books. You have more days here than there are days in the year, and even if you add in holidays and fast days you could never have put in that time; an’ that’ll never square wi’ my books!” Peter replied, “I don’t care a snuff for you or your books. You can put into your books whatever you like, but I have a book that tells no lie, and I’ll go to the General about you, sir, and I’ll let him ken what kind of man you are!” The factor, Mr. Watson, was there at the time and enjoyed the exchange, but poor Peter had to be content with the wages decided upon by the overseer.
The matter came to light several years later and, as with many complicated issues, simplicity reigned. The tree where Peter marked his days lay close to the old smiddy cottage. The smith had two or three sons who had discovered Peter’s book keeping practices and, after Peter had marked the trunk of the tree, they would go around periodically and put another exact mark on the trunk with a knife! When Peter added them up they came to a certain figure which he then submitted for payment.
