Though a ruin, and deserted probably for a couple of centuries, Borthwick is still in tolerable order, having been preserved by the unusual thickness of its walls and the excellence of their masonry, and the fact that both its basement and uppermost story are vaulted, and the upper vaults protected by stone roofing of a very substantial character. The intermediate timber floors are all gone, and the vast cavities are inhabited by a numerous colony of jackdaws, whose heaps of guano might be removed with advantage. No care has been or is bestowed upon the place, which until recently needed but little; now, however, the rank vegetation on the roof is displacing the tile stones, and the water penetrates the vaults. The grand fireplaces have fallen, and some of the lesser ones are about to fall. At present a few score pounds judiciously laid out would arrest the decay which, unchecked, will certainly in a very few years bring down the upper vaults, and involve the whole structure in irreparable ruin. [Illustration: FIRST FLOOR. BASEMENT. BORTHWICK TOWER.] The tower stands upon a tongue of rocky land, protected by deep, rugged, and wooded ravines to the south, east, and north. Down two of these flow the heads of the Middleton burn, and, below the castle, unite, to fall into the Gore water, which, gathering its springs from the adjacent Lammermuirs, flows, parallel to the railway, down a pretty pastoral valley by Gore Bridge, to the South Esk. The tower, placed over the juncture of the three streams, is a very marked object from the railway, contesting the attention of travellers with Crichton Castle, in an opposite direction, but in sight, for a few seconds, at the same time.