Writing in "Blackwood," Andrew Lang says:--Hard by Elibank, on the Tweed, is the thrice-renowned Ashiestiel, a place of Scott's cousins, the Russells, which he rented while in the first years of his poetic renown (1805-1812). On the heath above the house he saw but one ghost, a figure in brown, which vanished off the open moor, re-appeared as boldly, and frightened Scott's mare, Finella, into bolting home, where he was not sorry to find himself. At Ashiestiel is a melancholy relic, a huge chair, borrowed for Sir Walter in the days of his paralysis. Hard by is the Peel burn, which I have only too good cause to remember, as in my boyhood I managed to lose my way in the hills behind it, and, having no provender, suffered tribulation. Here lived the Laidlaws, the family under a strange curse. Mrs Laidlaw was a friend of the Shirra, to whom he gave a pretty set of his poems, now on my shelves. The particulars of the weird story of the Curse may be read in Lockhart the Laidlaws are now landless. They gave their name apparently to Laidlawstiel, near Ashiestiel. On the Peel burn there must have been a peel tower, now vanished. liamshope, where the dark Knight of Liddesdale was slain by another Douglas, is in the hill behind Ashiestiel. In Scott's day, I think, Williamshope was tenanted by William Laidlaw, the ballad collector, who brought him. acquainted with the Ettrick Shepherd-a very primitive shepherd and poet was he. Below Ashiestiel Tweed comes into all her beauty of sweeping pool, and rack-thwarted linns, and sheltering woods, at Fairnalee (now ruinous), Yair, and the pleasant old Nest, the joy of Russel of the Scotsman.' Here, like Jamshid, he revelled and drank deep," and, having lost a salmon at the rock in the Reewheel, held on to the rock for long, not knowing that the fish had escaped-" Russel's Rock" men call it now.

46

Wil

In the solitude of my Keep I have leisure to watch the ebb and flow of public sentiment, and to weigh the influences which are at work in the world around me. A dominie is not long in seeing the vast importance of apparent trifles, and from studying the characters of the little ones under his charge he looks out upon the great school-room of the nation and sees the same influences at work, making or marring the national life. I am a strong believer in the great importance to the Empire at large of keeping alive the distinct national ele

ments of the various nations composing it, and I rejoice to see that an increasing number of loyal Scots are endeavouring to check any obliteration of our name or rights from the affairs of the United Kingdom. It was a happy day for the Borderland when the two kingdoms were united, but we who acted as the buffer state know that the advantage was not all on one side by any means, though many of our English Histories would have the reader to believe this. The Scottish Patriotic Association is doing much to rectify this, and from their annual report I extract the following:

·

EXCERPT FROM THE TREATY OF UNION BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND.

Article I.-"That the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England shall, upon the first day of May next ensuing the date hereof, and for ever after, be united into one Kingdom by the name of Great Britain; and that the ensigns armorial of the said United Kingdom be such as Her Majesty (Queen Anne) shall appoint; and the Crosses of St Andrew and St George be conjoined in such manner as Her Maje ty shall think fit, and used in all flags, banners, standards, and ensigns both at sea and land." Article III. further provides-"That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by one and the same Parliament to be styled the Parliament of Great Britain." EXCERPT FROM THE SUBSEQUENT TREATY OF UNION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

"That the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January, 1801, and for ever after, be united in one Kingdom by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."

STATEMENT BY THE ENGLISH HISTORIAN OF THE

UNION BETWEEN ENGI AND AND SCOTLAND. In his "History of the Union." Defoe, who took part in the negotiations on the English side, says"That several distinct offices of Admiral, Chancellor, Treasurer, Secretaries of State, and President of Privy Council, sunk in.both Kingdoms; and new Commissions were issued.-As, one Privy Council and one President, under the title of Lord President of the Privy Council of Britain, Lord High Chancellor of Britain, Lord High Treasurer of Britain, and the like. The Queen herself (Queen Anne) lays down her separate titles, and is no more Queen of England, Scotland, etc., but Queen of Great Britain and is called in missives and in foreign accounts 'Her Britannic Majesty;' her troops. are no more English and Scots, but British Forces; and the arms of the island are now incorporated and quartered together."

After referring to exceptional arrangements, such as the Scottish nobles taking their part in the United House of Lords by elected representatives. Dofoe sums up thus:-"In all the rest England suffered the same alteration as Scotland, such as dissolving her Parliament, her name as a Kingdom, her Council, great offices, and Title of her Soverign; and all things began "de novo" in both Kingdoms under the single denomination of 'Britain' and 'British.' 39

DOMINIE SAMPSON.

Tweed, etc." About the middle of December of the previous year he arrived in Edinburgh, and during the stay there made the acquaint ance of a young man of amiable character and literary tendencies, just the sort of person who would be fascinated by the poet, and whose cheery and breezy disposition would naturally provoke the attention of Burns. Ainslie was a Border lad, serving his apprenticeship as a writer in the office of one Mr Samuel Mitchelson in Carrubbers' Close. A few years younger than the poet, he chummed with him at once, and the friendship thus formed lasted to the

end. A writer in the early fifties of last century says of him :--"I have often conversed with him about the bard, when age, business cares, and the gravity befitting his duty as an elder in the kirk, had given something of a different cast to his character; and never did he once admit, or seem capable of admitting, that the Ayrshire poet was anything but the finest fellow that ever breathed."

Cast so much in each other's company, it was but natural that young Ainslie should paint the glories of the Borderland to his friend in glowing colours, and we can well believe that the visions thus portrayed appealed to the finer fancies of the poet, and urged him to the journey.

Their mode of travel was on horseback, and on Saturday, 5th May, the two friends left Edinburgh. It was only to be expected that young Ainslie's thoughts would turn to his own home at Berrywell, near Duns, at which place Ainslie senior acted as land agent on the estates of Lord Douglas. Journeying by way of the Lammermuirs and Langton edge they reached the father's house on the Saturday night. Burns was touched by the family greeting of his companion, and evidently thoroughly enjoyed himself with the kindly household. They attended service at Duns, where the minister, Dr Bowmaker by name, preached a sermon which strongly condemned obstinate sinners. Ainslie's sister was one of the party, and Burns, taking a slip of paper, wrote:

"Fair maid, you need not take the hint.
Nor idle texts pursue;

'Twas guilty sinners that he meant-
Not angels such as you!"

Pursuing their course on the Monday by way of Coldstream, where they dined with a Mr Foreman, Burns crossed the bridge (at the Scottish side of which was the blacksmith's house, the scene of many a romantic marriage) over the Tweed, which, at this place, is the boundary line between England and Scotland, in order to say that he had been in the sister country. When on the English side, "Mr Ainslie was surprised to see the poet throw away his hat, and, thus uncovered, kneel down with uplifted hands, and apparently rapt in a fit of enthusiasm. Mr Ainslie kept silence, uncertain what was next to be done, when Burns, with extreme emotion, and an expression of countenance which his companion could never forget, prayed for and blessed Scotland most solemnly, by pronouncing aloud, in tones of the deepest devotion, the two concluding stanzas of the "Cottar's Saturday Night."

The Monday night was passed at Coldstream,

and an early start being made the following morning enabled the travellers to breakfast in Kelso. On his way from there to Jedburgh they diverged a little from the direct road to call on a friend of Mr Ainslie at Caverton Mill. The entry in the diary runs thus:-"Mr McDowal (McDougall) at Caverton Mill, a friend of Mr Ainslie's, with whom I dined to-day, sold his sheep, ewe and lamb, at two guineas a-piece. Wash their sheep before shearing-7 or 8 lb. of washing wool in a fleece-low markets, consequently low rents-fine lands, not above sixteen shillings a Scotch acre-magnificence of farmers and farm-houses." This David McDougall here referred to came of a stock who had been for two or three centuries leading farmers in the district of Kalewater; the family were nearly two hundred years in Caverton Mill. A David McDougall was the tenant during the rebellion of '45, and when the rebel army was on its way south the Duke of Roxburghe, afraid of any mishap occurring to the family plate and valuables, sent for his tenant, and arranged that he and his two sons should go to Floors under cover of night and convey the chests containing the plate to Caverton Mill, where it was buried in the stackyard, where it lay till all trouble was over. This man's son, David, who was Ainslie's friend, and tenant of the farm at the time of the visit, was one of the party entrusted with the secreting of the plate. The family took a great interest in the parish, as is evidenced by different references. A letter from the minister of Morebattle, which gives some idea of the times, may be quoted:

Morebattle, Nov. 26, 1742.

Dear Sir, I take opportunity by the bearer who comes to demand payment for the duties laid over Grubbet Bridge last winter to inform you that in a letter I had last week from Mr Binning acquainting with the raising of a summons of valuation of teinds in yr. parish, he expresses his desire to hear that the roof of the kirk is covered and care taken to keep the water under the new bridge, neither of which is yet done, and as none of the Duke's tenants who were formerly given up deficient in deviots to David McDougall, have yet brought them in, I desire you'l repeat your orders to them to bring them in as soon as the weather will permit.

As to the bridge, we must have a meeting of heritors in a little time, both anent the poor and for the choice of a schoolmaster, and I don't see how anything can be done in it till then. This with my humble service to Mrs Lindsay, from, Dear Sir, yours, ANDREW CHATTO.

P.S.-I believe I shall trouble you with a message for my stipend to-morrow eight days.

They arrived at the Border town and Royal Burgh of Jedburgh on Tuesday night. It can almost be said with certainty that the house

where Burns stayed during his three days' visit was in the Canongate adjoining the Dean's Close. At that time it would be one of the chief houses in the burgh. "The rooms are large, and the marble jambs and carved woodwork round the fire-place of the largest room are relics of last century grandeur.

On the following morning he breakfasted with a gentleman in the town, after which, he set out for a roup of grass parks, where he met Captain Rutherfurd, grandfather of the present laird of Fairmington, who had had a most remarkable career in North America, having been captured and held prisoner by a band of In

thither he met, and was introduced to, Mr Potts, a writer in the town, according to the poet "a very clever fellow," and Dr Somerville, minister of the Parish Church. Burns summed him up as "a man and a gentleman, but sadly addicted to punning." When this character appeared in print, it is stated on good authority that he abandoned the practice.

Undoubtedly the outstanding figure of the party in Burns' eyes was that of Isabella Linde. say. She was a daughter of Robert Lindesay. say, who practised in the town. Originally the family came from Forfarshire, the cradle of the clan.

Robert Lindesay had received his medica! education in Edinburgh, where his grandfather was a merchant, and, as the following letter will show, his intentions had been to go abroad. The writer of the letter, John Coutts, was partner of the banking house of Coutts Brothers & Co., which, at that time, had its premises on the second floor of the President's stairs, Parliament Close, Edinburgh. The let ter was to the Earl of Panmure, and is to the following effect : —

My Lord.-Mr Robert Lindsay, who delivers this to you, is the son of a very worthy man in the country, who has a good many friends in Angus, and connected with a good many of your Lordship's friends in that county. I have, therefore, presumed to recommend him to your Lordship, as your Lordship giving him a little countenance may be of great use to him. The young lad has been educated as a surgeon here, and goes abroad to endeavour. I presume, to get into some employment in the hospitalls. He has carried with him severall recommendations, particularly to his chief, the Earl of Crawfurd. I beg your Lordship will forgive the freedom I use, and I am, My Lord, Your Lor'ps most obed. huble servt., JOHN COUTTS.

Edinburgh, 6th April, 1748.

What the influencing reasons were is not known, but young Lindesay, if he went abroad, had not finally located, there. From the fact that his father, Alexander Lindesay, was Commissioner for the Duke of Roxburghe at Swin side, near Jedburgh, it is natural to suppose that the idea of starting as a surgeon in the county town would find favour with the family. At any rate he did so. and evidently was able to build up a good practice and occupy a good position, for he was elected to the office of Provost of the Burgh some ten years before the poet's visit. The position of Provost in these days was one of considerable importance. At the time of the Circuit Court the Provost and Magistrates, as representing the Crown, were ol liged to give personal attendance on the judges during the sitting of the Court, and prɔvide the requisite accommodation for carrying

on the business. "The Provost of Jedburgh, next to the judge, occupied the highest position. It was incumbent on the Provost and Magistrates to go out in state, generally so far as Ancrum Bridge, to meet the judge and escort him to the town, and on their arrival at the hotel door the burgesses were summoned, under the tenure by which they held their propertyof watching and warding-to form a guard to his Lordship and the Magistrates. A letter from a judge on circuit, which has been preserved, may be quoted. It is addressed to the Provost (Dr Lindesay) and Magistrates.

Galashiels, Monday, 8th May, 1780. Gentlemen,-I have got this far on my road to Jedburgh to hold the Circuit there. I shall be at Merton this night, and pass to-morrow at that place, and shall be at Jedburgh on Wednesday about half-an-hour after twelve, and I shall go to Court about an hour after. I thought it my duty to give you this information, and am with great regard, Gentlemen, Your most humble servant, THO. MILLER.

Dr Lindesay occupied, at the time of the poet's visit, the house which had been associated with Queen Mary. When on her Border visit she lay sick with fever in this dwelling, and ever afterwards it was known as Queen Mary's house. Through the courtesy of Mr Simson, writer, the following interesting information has been obtained from the titles regarding it. From these it would appear that two infeftments were granted in favour of Sir Patrick Scott of Ancrum in the year 1704; while a charter of adjudication had been granted by the Magistrates of Jedburgh in favour of the deceased William Ainslie of Black Hill, dated 3rd February, 1694. On the 4th of July, 1740, Sir John Scott of Ancrum disponed the property to George Kemp, Town Treasurer of the Burgh of Jedburgh, for himself, and in the name of the Magistrates, Town Council, and community of the said Burgh, the price of the property being £200 stg., the right of the "Dask' or seat in the Kirk of Jedburgh being included in the conveyance. On 13th June, 1743, the Most Honourable William Henry, Marquis of Lothian, Lord Provost of the Burgh of Jedburgh, the Bailies and Councillors thereof, in respect of a payment of £200, disponed the property to the said Sir William Scott, who some seven years later, by private sale, parted with the property to Mr Alexander Lindesay in Swineside, "all and haill that land or lot, high and laigh back and fore with the yeards, plots, grass, fruit and forest trees, including the "dask" or seat in the kirk, which was near the pulpit on the south, and the entry leading to the Session table on the north." Dr Robert

Lindesay succeeded in 1775, and from him the property passed into the hands of Robert Lindesay Armstrong, who was naturalised in Russia. Some fifteen years ago it was bought by Mr Alexander Scott, in whose hands it now is.

Isabella Lindesay was married to Adam Armstrong, son of the teacher at Hobkirk. He entered the Russian service and reached the rank of Major-General. It was through this marriage that Queen Mary's House came into the Armstrong family. Dr Lindesay had the misfortune to lose by drowning his son, Alexander, who was a much-liked young man.

cured him the esteem and favour of all to whom he was afterwards known in the intercourse of society and business. A candid interpreter in the actions of others, he never spoke of any person with bitterness or censure. He was exemplary for filial and brotherly affection, and his parents have been often heard to say that they could not recollect one instance of his having given them any cause of offence or displeasure. He received peculiar testimonies of respect and confidence from the officers and privates of the regiment to which he belonged. At the age of twenty-eight, possessed of a vigorous constitution in the full career of prosperity and honour a fatal calamity prematurely closed the scene of his existence here, admonishing his surviving acquaintances and

The following account, by the courtesy of the proprietor of the "Kelso Mail," is taken from the issue of that paper of date 11th September, 1797:

On Thursday, the 7th current, the body of Alexander Lindsay, Surgeon and Captain-Lieutenant of the Roxburghshire Light Dragoons, was interred in the Churchyard of Jedburgh. The excellent character of Captain Lindsay, and a combination of disastrous circumstances attending his death, render it singularly affecting to his relatives and numerous acquaintances. Endowed with a solid understanding, improved by a liberal education, he was well qualified for the duties of his profession. The mildness of his temper, his modest and unassuming manners joined to a kindly and obliging disposition, attracted the marked attachment of his early companions, and eminently pro

friends of the vanity and deceitfulness of the fairest terrestrial hopes.

A tablet with this inscription is erected against the south wall of Jedburgh Abbey, close to the entrance to the Tower:

"Near

This place is interred the Body of

ALEXANDER LINDSAY,

Surgeon and Captain-Lieutenant of the Regiment of Roxburgh and Selkirkshire Light Dragoons, who was unfortunately drowned in the Jed on the 3rd Sept., 1797, in the 28th year of his age. In testimony of

the high respect and affectionate attachment to his memory this monument is erected in his name."