The Monster of Glamis Castle

The Dowager Lady Granville, elder sister of the Queen Mother, recalled that when she lived there children often awoke at night screaming because a huge bearded man had leant over their beds and looked at them. There was one story, however, which Lady Granville admitted they were never allowed to discuss when they were children and which her father and grandfather absolutely refused to speak to her about. This was the story of the Castle Monster, an eldest son of the family born in a hideous form with a massive body covered in matted black hair, tiny arms and legs and a head sunk deep into his barrel chest. Obviously such a creature could not inherit
the title and he was kept in a secret room and exercised on the roofs at night. He was believed to have lived to be well over a hundred and died in the early part of this century. To keep the dreadful secret only four men at any one time were allowed to know of the Monster’s existence. They were the Earl, the family lawyer,
the agent to the estate and the eldest son who was shown the Monster, the rightful Earl, on the day that he came of age.

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