The Landed Proprietors of Great Britain 



231 



mer, at the castle, in name of blench-holding." 

 By this time the family of Ker was widely 

 extended in the county of Roxburgh, Mark 

 Ker, ancestor of the Kers of Littledean, held 

 the fortress of Dolphinstone, near the water 

 of Oxnam ; and Thomas Ker had, in 1410, 

 built the strong baronial fortress of Fernie- 

 hirst, on the banks of the Jed, two miles 

 above Jedburgh. Another of the family held 

 Gateshaw, on the banks of the Kale, and the 

 gallant chieftain of the clan lived in Cessford 

 Castle, whence he ruled the fair domains of 

 Caverton, the whole east side of the Bow- 

 mont to the English border, the regality of 

 Sprouston, and the fertile wedge of land be- 

 tween the Tweed and the Teviot, terminating 

 in the "Ros" or promontory, which gave 

 name and place to the town and royal castle 

 of Roxburgh. To this extent had the name 

 and influence of Ker risen within a century 

 and a-half, from the time when John Ker 

 first appears as laird of Auldtownburn and 

 Mow, when probably his whole following was 

 scarcely more than the twenty men who held 

 the Cocklaw Tower against English aggres- 

 sion. 



When Andrew Ker, in 1446, received from 

 Archibald Douglas the barony of Cessford, 

 the country was not in a state for the en- 

 couragement of agriculture; and all the 

 arrangements Avere adapted to a condition 

 of incessant warfare. From remaining ruins 

 it appears that the central part of Cessford 

 Castle has been 67 feet long, 60 feet broad, 

 and 65 feet in height. The walls have been 

 about 13 feet in thickness. In 1523 the Earl 

 of Surrey pronounced the place to be im- 

 pregnable, but, as every other fortress in the 

 neighbourhood had been destroyed, Sir 

 Andrew Ker, then warden of the marches, 

 capitulated rather than sustain the horrors of 

 a siege. Within a circuit of three miles were 

 the fortresses of Ormiston, Eckford, Wooden, 

 and the Moss Tower, the last of which was 

 situated in a morass, now " the garden farm 

 of Teviotdale," and owned by the Duke of 

 Buccleuch. In the moss some antient occu- 

 pants of the district have remained interred ; 

 for, several years ago, there Avere dug up the 

 skull of a bison, a huge pair of deer's horns, 



besides nuts, roots, and large trunks of oak 

 and other trees. For two hundred troublous 

 years, from 1446 to 1650, the successors of 

 Andrew Ker ruled in Cessford, and its last 

 noble occupant was Sir Robert, better knoAvn 

 as Hobbie, or Habbie Ker, first Earl of 

 Roxburghe, and celebrated as the most pov/er- 

 ful man of his time. He was born in 1570, 

 was raised to the peerage as Lord Roxburghe 

 in 1606, Avas elevated to the rank of Earl of 

 Roxburghe and Lord Ker of Cessford and 

 Caverton in 16 16, and died in the year 1650. 

 His first public appearance Avas in 1585, 

 when he joined the banished lords in their 

 unsuccessful effort to expel SteAA-art, Earl of 

 Arran, from the royal presence. Afterwards 

 he became Avarden of the Scottish marches, 

 and Avas considered a particularly brave and. 

 active young man. In 1597 he surrendered 

 himself to Carey the English Avarden, in con- 

 sequence of neglecting a mutual agreement 

 for a delivery of prisoners, and he Avas de- 

 livered up to the Archbishop of York, Avho 

 described him as Avise and valiant, but some- 

 Avhat haughty and resolute. He AA^as speedily 

 released, and obtained, Avith other estates and 

 titles, a charter of Holydean in the parish of 

 BoAvden, and of the tOAvn of Kelso and the 

 barony of Sprouston, all of Avhich had formerly 

 belonged to the Kelso Abbey. The Rox- 

 burghe estates Avere now both rich and Avidely 

 distributed, extending into about fourteen 

 parishes, and valued, in 1643, at upAvards of 

 ;^43,ooo. Some alterations have been made 

 since then, but in the Avay of extending 

 rather than curtailing the ducal possessions ; 

 and the annual value has, of course, largely 

 increased. The lands of Avhich Ave speak are 

 all in the county of Roxburgh, Avhere farming 

 has reached a high state of development, and 

 we propose to describe the Roxburghe estates 

 — first, as they Avere tOAvard the close of last 

 century, and, next, as they are at the present 

 day. 



Of the upland portion of the estate, in the 

 parishes of Hownam, Oxnam, and More 

 battle, little need be said. Great changes 

 Avere effected tOAvard the close of last cen- 

 tury, in the Avay of enlarging farms, Avhich 

 diminished the population, causing no little 



