Originally published in Pearson's Weekly (C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.) vol.2 #66 (24 Oct 1891).
Very curious are the superstitions of some of our old families, curious though they are, most of the members firmly believe in them. Two giant owls perch upon the battlements of Wardour Castle when the last hour of an Arundel has come. If a Devonshire Oxenham is about to die, a white-breasted bird flutters over the doomed one's head.
The Middletons of Yorkshire, as becomes an ancient Roman Catholic house, have a Benedictine nun to warn them of an approaching death. A weeping, wailing spirit warns the Stanleys of a reduction in their number. A hairy-armed girl, called May Mullach, brings the like sad news to the Grants of Grants. The Bodach-am-dun, or Ghost of the Hill, performs the office for the Grants of Rothie-murcus.
The death of the Earl of Airlie is foretold by the beating of an invisible drum. In 1849 Lord Airlie died in London, and the household at Cortachy Castle, his seat in Forfarshire, were thus prepared for the news, and when his son died in Colorado the ghostly drummer-boy was heard just before his death. Lady Airlie heard it in her room and was greatly prostrated, but one of the servants first heard it in a corridor. The approaching death of a Bruce is announced by the spectre of a woman in white, who appears to the doomed scion of that ancient and once royal house.