Highways and Byways in the Border: IllustratedLang, Andrew
History
Highways and Byways in the Border: Illustrated
Lang, Andrew
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Description and travel
{347}Cademuir, by the way, the hill on Manor's right at its junction
with Tweed, is the supposed scene of Arthur's seventh battle against the
Pagans. _Cad_ is Welsh for battle,--Gaelic, _cata_, hence _Cad-more_,
the "great battle." Professor Veitch hesitates between this site and
that of the neighbouring pre-historic hill fort, the Lour, near Dawyck,
but thinks the former the more probable. Just below the height of the
Lour, till the beginning of the nineteenth century there stood, he says,
an almost perfect _cromlech_, consisting of "two or more upright stones,
and one flat stone laid across as a roof, all of remarkable size." This
_cromlech_ was known in the district as Arthur's Oven. It is humiliating
to have to confess that it, the neighbouring old peel tower of Easter
Dawyck, the Tower of Posso, and the ancient Kirk of St. Gordian, were
all made into road metal, or used as material for building walls or farm
buildings, by Sir Walter Scott's father, of all people in the world. One
may wonder what were Sir Walter's thoughts when he came to know.
A little way up from Manor Valley, and joining Tweed from the
northern side, is Lyne Water. It is not possible to pursue all Tweed's
tributaries to their source, however full of interest each may be, for
their name is legion. But Lyne cannot be passed without note being taken
of its little--very little--early seventeenth century Parish Church. And
adjoining it are remains of a great Roman camp--Randall's Wa's, i: has
been called locally from times long past. Perhaps it was here--at least
it was on Lyne Water--that Sir James Douglas captured Randolph before
the time came when the latter finally cast in his lot with the Bruce.
Farther up, on an eminence at the junction of Lyne and Tartli Waters,
stands the massive ivy-clad ruin of Drochil Castle. Built by the Regent
Morton in the sixteenth century, Drochil was never completed, and never
occupied. Just before the building approached completion, Morton, judged
guilty of complicity in the murder of Darnley, was executed, beheaded by
"the Maiden"--a sort of Scottish {348}guillotine--on 2nd June, 1581;
and the home of a Regent of Scotland, "designed more for a palace than a
castle of defence," is now a rum, of use only as a shelter for cattle!
[Illustration: 0368]
Happrew, on Lyne, is the scene of the defeat "wrought by the lords
William de Lalymer, John de Segrave, and Robert de Clifford, upon
Simone Fraser and William le Walleys at Hopperowe," in 1304. And on the
elevated heathy flat below which Tweed and Lyne meet, there is what is
called the Sheriff's Muir, of old a mustering place for Scottish forces
during the wars with England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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