In parapsychology, black spots are sombre sites which
have been blighted at random intervals by tragedy and disaster.
It’s believed these doom-laden domains are haunted by dark spirits who
inflict sorrow and sadness on people engulfed in swirling vortices of
death and destruction.
One such melancholic neuk is the
confluence of the Rivers White Cart and Clyde, where Blythswood House
once stood in a sylvan setting. Back in 1685, the Covenanting 9th Earl
of Argyll, Archibald Campbell (1629-85) was captured there by Jacobite
dragoons while resting beside a large rock.
The religious rebel
was beheaded in Edinburgh for resisting the tyrannical rule of King
James VII and II.
The ill-starred boulder, known as the Argyll
Stone, is still visible near the Normandy Hotel, in Renfrew.
Across the White Cart is Old Inchinnan Church, where medieval Knights
Templar are entombed. Some escaped blood-thirsty massacre initiated by
King Philip IV, of France, and Pope Clement V on Black Friday, October
13, 1307.
Friday the 13th was also unlucky for the Lords
Blythswood, who lived at their magnificent mansion over-looking the
Water Neb where the White Cart and Clyde merge. Embowered by trees,
curling ponds, tennis courts and a cricket pitch, Blythswood House was
completed in 1824 for Major Archibald Campbell, who was related to the
martyred Earl of Argyll.
The first Lord Blythswood – Crimean War
hero Sir Archibald Campbell, who raised to the peerage in 1892 – was
aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria.
He and his wife, Lady Augusta
Clementina Carrington, visited the monarch at her Osborne House
residence on the Isle of Wight. The aristocratic couple welcomed Her
Majesty to Blythswood House when she visited Renfrew and Paisley Abbey in
1888.
The Grecian-style mansion, demolished in 1935, roomed death
beds for the first and second Lords Blythswood in 1908 and 1916.
They were followed to the grave by the next four lords in 1918, 1929,
1937 and 1940.
The 21-year-old seventh and last Lord Blythswood
held the title for just six months before being killed in a car crash in
Surrey on Friday, September 13, 1940. With his passing, the historic
title became extinct.
Seven men held the office in 48 years. All
died within 32 years of each other. Unlucky Friday the 13th tolled the
Blythswood dynasty’s death knell.
We remember them this Thursday,
September 13, on the 72nd anniversary of the end of their line.
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