Alexander Lindsay, 4th Earl of Crawford was a cruel and difficult man. He drank much, gambled often, and his moods were as turbulent as the wind. He gained himself the reputation of ‘The Tiger’ on account of his frightening brutality, though to many, he was Earl Beardie. 

One cold Saturday night, Earl Beardie was playing cards with a friend in Glamis Castle. Deep in the castle, sheltered from the storm outside, the whisky and the chatter flowed freely, and the pair gambled on into the night. 

As midnight approached, a timid but well-meaning servant knocked on the door.

“Sir, the clock’s near midnight and games are forbidden on the Sabbath.” 

Earl Beardie was irritated by the intrusion. His head was light with drink and what’s more, he was winning. No Sabbath would come between him and this night of revelry.  

“I will play until Doomsday!” Earl Beardie roared, and waved the servant from his presence. 

As the night crept on, the gambling continued, until at five minutes to midnight,  Beardie’s servant once again knocked gently on the door, trembling as he spoke. 

“Sir, it’s five tae midnight and games are forbidden on the Sabbath.” 

Earl Beardie slammed down his glass when he heard the servant speak. “Insolent boy, get out!” 

The servant, realising his warnings would go unheeded, slipped from the room and left the Earl to his gambling once more. Earl Beardie’s friend, however, drained his glass and got to his feet. 

“I won’t be one to attract the attention of Auld Nick,” he said, pulling his coat on and fixing his hat. 

Earl Beardie insisted he stay, pouring another drink, dishing out a fresh hand, but despite all of his attempts to make him stay, his friend departed and set off into the night.

Alone and enraged that his night had been cut short by such a silly superstition, Earl Beardie cried out, “I would play with the Devil himself were he here!”

As the bell pealed midnight, a knock came on the door of the chamber. 

Earl Beardie, thinking his servant had returned, snarled, “Enter, in the fiends name!” 

When the door opened, a stranger dressed in black stepped into the light and asked to be dealt a hand. 

Earl Beardie was confused by the stranger, but nevertheless, was grateful to have a new gambling partner, and he readily obliged in dealing out the cards. 

The pair played through the early hours of the Sabbath, and all the while Earl Beardie’s poor servant waited by the door, trembling as the game grew louder by the hour, until Earl Beardie was shouting all manner of curses as he lost round after round to the stranger. Once he’d gambled away his money, he gambled away his lands, and when he’d gambled away his lands, he gambled away his title, and when he had nothing left to gamble, Earl Beardie gambled away his own soul.

When the servant checked back in the morning, he found the pair still playing, Earl Beardie still losing. Each day the servant checked on the pair, their game stretching out over days, over weeks, and over months and years. 

They say that the Devil and Earl Beardie gamble in Glamis Castle even still and they won’t stop until Earl Beardie wins back his soul. 

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glamis_Castle_01.jpg