BATTLE OF PINKIE AND CARBERRY. 75 



who married a daughter of the earl of Cromarty, and died without male issue, 

 the family split between the heii-s-male and the heirs of line ; of whom the 

 former are represented by the present Sir James Broun, Bart., and the latter 

 by the countess of Dalhousie. The tradition of the " Colstoun Pear" is no 

 doubt familiar to most of our readers. 



It was enchanted, says the legend, by the celebrated necromancer, Hugo de 

 Gifford, baron of Yester, in 1250, and came into the Colstoun family as part 

 of the dowry presented by Lord Yester, on the marriage of his daughter with 

 George Broun, the laird of Colstoun. Her successor, however, the lady of 

 the second baronet, and daughter of the earl of Cromarty, dreamed on the 

 very first night she slept at Colstoun, that she had eaten the " enchanted Pear!" 

 This was considered a bad omen : but ladies will have their dreams, as some 

 people will have their jokes, without respect or reference to consequences, 

 which, in the present instance, were fatal to the heirs male, and left a wide 

 hiatus in the succession, till restored in the person of the present baronet, 

 Sir James Broiin. The pear is kept in a fortified part of Colstoun-house, and 

 locked up in a gold box, which the town of Haddington presented for that 

 important custody ; and so long, continues the legend, as the pear is thus 

 preserved, prosperity will follow the name, and neutralize at last the temporary 

 mischief occasioned by a " lady's dream !" 



Among the first objects of attraction on the Midlothian frontier are Pinkie 

 and Carberry-hill, both celebrated in the military annals of the country as the 

 scene of two battles fought there during the life of the unfortunate Queen 

 Mary. The causes which immediately led to the first are briefly these :— 

 The alliance which had been proposed by Henry VIII., but foiled by the 

 intervention of Cardinal Beaton, and followed by the battle of the Borough 

 Muir, was succeeded, on the death of tlfis monarch, by renewed proposals of 

 aUiance between his son, Edward VI., and Mary of Scotland. To intimidate 

 the Scotch into compliance, the duke of Somerset entered the country at the 

 head of a powerful army. In addition to the land force, amounting to 18,000 

 meUj the invasion was supported by a fleet of thirty ships of war, and the same 

 number of transports ; while the hostile aggression was excused by reference 

 to certain plundering incursions on the Borders, in which many Scotch leaders 

 were implicated, and the old pretension of English supremacy revived. It was 

 urged that nature obviously intended the whole island for one empire, by 



" Pear," as well as for other particulars connected with several remarkable sites in this county, the reader 

 is again referred to Mr. Chambers' " Picture of Scotland"— the " Statistical Account" — " Border His- 

 tory' — " Caledonia," &c.— and the local authorities. 



