Such a licence is rare in Scotland, where the nobles were very independent of the Crown, and the country commonly so disturbed that a castle was almost a necessary of life. To the castle so licensed to be built was given the name of Borthwick. It is probable from the term “Le Mot” that there was already a strong place there, for which indeed the position was very suitable. This Sir William seems to have been the first Lord Borthwick. His lineal male descendant, John, the eighth lord, held out his castle for a time against Cromwell’s artillery. His son, John, the ninth lord, died childless in 1681, and on his death the castle passed to his sister’s son, Dundas of Harrington, from which family, after two descents, the castle was purchased by Borthwick of Croston, descended from a younger son of the first lord, and his male descendant in the tenth generation claimed, in 1774, the barony, which, however, was ultimately granted to a still nearer male heir. John, the fifth lord, was a strong partisan of Queen Mary. He it was who ducked the apparitor in the burn, and made him eat his letter of excommunication, steeped in wine. Mary fled to Borthwick Castle, about three weeks after her marriage with Bothwell, 7th June, 1577, and, being followed by the opposing lords, fled thence, on the 11th, to Dunbar, disguised as a page. No doubt she slept in the chamber called by her name. Bothwell, at that time, possessed the adjacent castle of Crichton. The Borthwick arms carved in the hall of the castle are,—(A) three cinquefoils (sable). The adjacent church was rebuilt, or nearly so, in excellent taste, in 1850. It has a western tower with a broach spire, a nave, chancel, and round apse, and two transepts, of which that to the south is old, and mainly in the Decorated style, though with some traces of Norman work. Dr. Robertson, the historian, was born in the manse, which, however, has been rebuilt. THE CASTLE OF BÔVES.