Tlic Country Gentleman s Magazine 



the Tweed are the ruins of Roxburghe Castle, 

 for centuries a royal residence. The river 

 Tweed itself is a noble stream, and within the 

 ducal policies are some of the best salmon 

 casts on the river, where the Prince of Wales 

 and the Duke of Edinburgh have at times 

 successfully grappled with the monarch of the 

 flood. The town of Kelso, with its ruined 

 abbey, its elegant villas, its spacious five- 

 arched bridge, nearly 500 feet in length, is a 

 prominent object in the landscape; and 

 beyond the circumjacent woods the eye 

 wanders over many thousand acres of the 

 ducal territory, including the rich alluvial 

 lands of Sprouston, the fine garden farms west 

 of Roxburgh Castle, the wooded heights of 

 Caverton, and the green hills of the Cheviot 

 range, which can be seen along their whole 

 length from the eastern extremity near Wooler 

 to the western apex of the Carter Fell on the 

 borders of Liddesdale. It is a land every foot 

 of which was familiar to the heroic barons of 

 Cessford, whom the Duke of Roxburghe now 

 represents ; and from his renowned ancestors 

 the Duke has inherited some of the richest 

 lands on the Border. For its combination of 

 beauty, romance, and fertility, the Duke of 

 Roxburghe's estate cannot easilybe surpassed, 

 and in the centre of this noble country Floors 

 Castle occupies a worthy place. The poet 

 of Teviotdale has described the locality in the 

 following lines : — 



" Bosom'd in woods wliere mighty rivers run, 

 Kelso's fair vale expands before the sun ; 

 Its rising do\vns in vernal beauty swell, 

 And, fringed with hazel, winds each flowery dell ; 

 Green spangled plains to dimpling lawns succeed, 

 And Tempe rises on the banks of Tweed." 



Like some other noble families, the Kers 

 have not enjoyed their estates from a date of 

 very great antiquity. The family is probably 

 of Anglo-Norman lineage, but the name first 

 appears in Border history about the middle 

 of the 14th century, when it was spelt, on the 

 English side Carr or Can-e, but in Scotland 

 Ker or Kerr. The first mentioned is John 

 Ker, "of the forest of Selkirk," who, in 1357 

 and 1358 obtained two charters, one of Auld- 

 townburn, the other, along with his wife 

 Maria, of " part of the lands of Auldtown- 



burn and Molla in the regality of Sprouston." 

 These lands are all on the east side of the 

 Bowmont valley, extending from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Yetholm to the English border, 

 at the summit of the Cheviots. Several 

 of the hills are over 2000 feet high, 

 and the character of the locality is ex- 

 pressed in the word molla or moll, which 

 is the British word mole, and signifies 

 a bare, bald, and naked hill. And yet the 

 vales must have been fertile, for the monas- 

 teries of Kelso, Melrose, Jedburgh, and 

 Paisley had possessions there; and at the 

 time when John Ker appears on the scene, 

 there were at Mow, a fortress, a church, and 

 a vicar, which have all now passed away, 

 leaving nothing but the antient cemetery, 

 where priest, peasant, and warrior sleep 

 peacefully together. From this period the 

 Ker family seems to have taken root on the 

 banks of the Bowmont, for, on the 20th of 

 November 1430, Andrew Ker added the 

 lands of Primside to those of Mow and Auld- 

 townburn, and seven years later he had a 

 grant of sundry lands in the regality of 

 Sprouston from Archibald Douglas, who calls 

 him " my beloved kinsman." In 1466 he 

 obtained the barony of Cessford, with which 

 the Ker family has ever since been closely 

 identified. In 1450 another Andrew Ker 

 succeeded to the barony of Cessford, and in 

 his time the fortunes of the family continu- 

 ously prospered. On the 6th of February 

 1452 he had a charter of the King's lands of 

 the barony of Auld Roxburgh, and married a 

 daughter of William Douglas of Cavers, by 

 whom he had a son, Walter Ker, who suc- 

 ceeded to the estates in 1480. Previous to 

 his death in 1561, Walter Ker had obtained 

 from James IV., for himself and his heirs, 

 " the castle of Roxburgh, and the site thereof, 

 called the castell-stede, with the ' site and 

 capital messuage of Roxburgh, together with 

 the right of patronage of the hospital called 

 Le Masson Dew of Roxburgh, and whatever 

 was annexed to the said hospital, castle, and 

 messuage. Likewise, the right of patronage 

 of the hospital called Le Masson Dew of 

 Jedburgh, rendering, if demanded, one red 

 rose on the feast of St John Baptist, in sum- 



