The 4th Duke and his wife, the celebrated beauty and society hostess, Jane Maxwell, entertained many important guests at Gordon Castle during the 18th century, including Robert Burns who wrote a poem ‘Castle Gordon’ by way of a thank you for the hospitality he had received.
Castle Gordon
Streams that glide in orient plains,
Never bound by Winter’s chains;
Glowing here on golden sands,
There immixed with foulest stains
From Tyranny’s empurpled hands:
These, their richly gleaming waves,
I leave to tyrants and their slaves;
Give me the stream that sweetly laves
The banks by Castle Gordon.
Spicy forests, ever gay,
Shading from the burning ray
Hapless wretches sold to toil;
Or the ruthless Native’s way,
Bent on slaughter, blood, and spoil:
Woods that ever verdant wave,
I leave the tyrant and the slave;
Give me the groves that lofty brave
The storms, by Castle Gordon.
Wildly here without control,
Nature reigns and rules the whole;
In that sober, pensive mood,
Dearest to the feeling soul,
She plants the forest, pours the flood:
Life’s poor day I’ll musing rave,
And find at night a sheltering cave,
Where waters flow and wild woods wave
By bonny Castle Gordon.
Wonderful website and YouTube video but I can’t help but wonder what your Gordon family history is. My 3rd great grandparents were Donald Gordon (1761-1861) and Jean Forsyth who immigrated to Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada and Donald lived to age 100. Does your castle have and books written about the Gordons who immigrated to Canada? I would like to visit your castle some day.
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