EYKMOUTH. — COLDINGHAM PRIORY. 43 



Of Lammermoor our limits will only permit us to present a few additional 

 features. Eyemouth, once so conspicuous in the " annals of contraband," 

 is still a port of considerable activity. Close to the harbour is the house of 

 Gunsgreen,* built by a wealthy smuggler, and in allusion to which, a member 

 once observed in the senate, that smuggUng was here carried on to such an 

 alarming extent, that one man had been enabled from its gains to erect a 

 splendid palace. For the better security of his contraband traffic, this proprietor 

 had various secret store-rooms constructed within or near the mansion; and 

 some of which, it is conjectured, still remain, wdth their precious commodities, 

 as a prize for some future discoverer. A few years since, a pair of horses 

 were nearly swallowed up in consequence of the roof of one of these secret 

 ware-rooms giving way, while the plough was passing over it in a neighbouring 

 field. The house and grounds are now in possession of the venerable and 

 retired pastor of Ayton.f Halidon hill, already mentioned as one of the battle- 

 fields in which right and might have so often striven for ascendency, is a 

 prominent object in this neighbourhood. 



The ancient Priory of Coldingham, though reduced and mutilated in all 

 its beauty and dimensions, is still worth a pilgrimage. Its stragghng fragments 

 and consecrated pavements, now abandoned to the plough; and the Saxon 

 arch, the last of its royal palace, are stUl sufficient to justify the beUef of its 

 early magnificence, and to illustrate the history of what, reputedly, was the 

 first asylum of christian missionaries in Scotland. About fifty or sixty years 

 ago, the skeleton of a nun was found standing erect in a niche of the wall, 



to the capital. The laird of Wedderburn, however, bearing him a strong grudge, as agent in the duke of 

 Albany's cause, watched his opportunity, till, finding him at a little distance from his attendants, he took 

 no pains to conceal his murderous intentions. Tillibatie feeling that he was ensnared, put spurs to his 

 horse ; and being well mounted, hoped to have escaped by the fleetness of his steed : but being a total 

 stranger, and ignorant of the locality by which he pursued his way towards the castle of Dunbar, his horse 

 foundered in a morass, and there his enemies came upon him in his helplessness, and foully assassinated 

 him. He wore his hair, says the chronicle, long, platted, and flowing from his neck, by which Sir David 

 Home of Wedderburn, fastened the head to his saddle bow, a trophy not of valour, but barbarity — 



" As vile a stroke 

 As ever wall-eyed wrath, or staring rage, 

 Presented to the tears of soft remorse." 



• A distillery, now in full operation here, is capable of making one thousand five hundred gallons of 

 aqua weekly, and most of which is sold in London for the support of the '* gin palaces." 



f The reader acquainted with this locality, will regret to hear that the house of Ayton, so long the pro- 

 minent object from the London road, and remarkable for the beauty of its grounds, was accidentally burnt 

 to the ground in the course of last year. It is the castle of which Ford, in his dramatic chronicle, alluding 

 to the siege by Surrey, general of Henry VII., says, " This strongest of their forts, old Ayton Castle, was 

 yielded and demolished." It was founded by a Norman, named De Vescie — afterwards, De Eitun, and 

 fell into the possession of the Homes about the commencement of tlie fifteenth century. 



