The staircases and their passages are stone-walled,
stone-roofed, and stone-floored, and their flags are worn into
hollows by the feet which have trodden them for so many centuries.
Unusual features are the secret winding staircases debouching in
the most unexpected places, and a well in the front hall, which
doubtless played a very useful part during the many sieges the
castle sustained in the old days. The private chapel is a
beautiful little place of worship, with eighty painted panels of
Scriptural subjects by De Witt, the seventeenth-century Dutch
artist, and admirable stained glass. The Castle, too, is full of
interesting historical relics. It boasts the only remaining Fool's
dress of motley in the kingdom; Prince Charlie's watch and clothes
are still preserved there, for the Prince, surprised by the
Hanoverian troops at Glamis, had only time to jump on a horse and
escape, leaving all his belongings behind him. There is a
wonderful collection of old family dresses of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and above all there is the very ancient
silver-gilt cup, "The Lion of Glamis," which holds an entire
bottle of wine, and on great family occasions is still produced
and used as a loving-cup, circulating from hand to hand round the
table.
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