84 SCOTXAND ILLUSTRATED. 



1057. About the beginning of the fifteenth century. Sir William Borthwick, 

 who had distinguished himself in various important negotiations at foreign 

 coui-ts, was elevated to the peerage, and obtained a hcense from the sovereign 

 to build a castle, of which the present ruins ai'e the original, and in style and 

 strength, afford a correct notion of the baronial fortresses of those days. The 

 form of the building is square ; seventy-four by sixty-eight feet within the 

 walls ; of hewn stone withm and without, and near the foundation thirteen feet 

 tliick. Besides the sunk story, the height from the adjacent area to the battle- 

 ment is ninety feet, or, including the arched roof, one hundred and ten feet. 

 In one of the lower apartments was an excellent spring well. On the first 

 floor were the state apartments, approached by a drawbridge. The principal 

 hall, forty feet long, had its music gallery, lustres, tapestry, and richly painted 

 ceiling; while its capacious chimney retains the marks of having been elaborately 

 carved and gilded. Previous to the invention of artillery, this fortress must 

 have been impregnable, and might have remained to this day without a scar, 

 had not the cannon of Cromwell made an experiment upon its walls. It was 

 here that Queen Mary retired for some time with Bothwell, previously to her 

 final separation from him at Carberry. 



On the 18th of November, 1650, Lord Borthwick, who, under every political 

 vicissitude had remained firmly attached to the royal cause, was summoned by the 

 Protector to surrender ; arfd after a short resistance, in which he had no prospect 

 of relief, capitulated, and received permission to remove his family and property 

 unmolested. The title is now claimed by Mr. Borthwick of Crookstone. 



In following the course of the South Esk, the principal objects in the form 

 of manorial residences are Arniston, the seat of the Mehdlle family, Dalhousie 

 Castle, and Newbattle Abbey. Further down is the House— or, as it is more 

 usually styled, the palace — of Dalkeith, erected about the beginning of the last 

 century, by Ann, duchess of Buccleugh and Monmouth, and which, in addition 

 to the many illustrious guests who have sojourned within its princely halls, 

 had latterly the honour to receive our lamented sovereign, George IV., on his 

 visit to the Scottish capital. The park, in which this princely mansion is 

 situated, is estimated at eight hundred Scotch acres ; it presents every variety 

 of rich and diversified scenery, and is daily receiving fresh embellishments from 

 the hand of taste. It is completely walled in, stocked with every vegetable 

 production compatible wdth the cUmate : intersected by the windings of the 

 North and South Esk, which unite at a short distance below the house ; and 

 with all the mingling charms of wood and water, seems to realize the dreams 

 of a terrestrial Eden. 



