1883.] EXCUBSION TO ETTRICK FOBEST. r,3 



many of the sons of the Forest at Flodden that the exquisitely pathetic 

 ballad ' The Flowers of the Forest' was written. 



* I've heard them lilting at the ewe-milking, 

 Lasses a' lilting before dawn of day ; 

 But now they are moaning on the ilka green loaming, 

 The flowers o' the forest are a' wede awa-. 



' At e'en in the gloaming nae younkers are roaming 



'Bout stacks with the lasses at bogle to play, 

 Bat ilk maid sits dreary, lamenting her deary, — 



The flowers o' the forest are a' wede awae. 



* Dool and wae for the order, sent our lads to the Border, 



The English for ance by guile wan the day ; 

 The flowers o' the forest that fought aye the foremost. 



The prime o' our land, are cauld in the clay.' 



By this time we have reached the level of the Ettrick, and, crossing the 

 river by a handsome stone bridge, turn to our left and bowl along a road 

 which has few equals for its exquisite sylvan scenery. On either side of 

 the valley rise gentle and anon precipitous slopes, which have been planted 

 with admirable landscape effect, the belts now curving down to the water's 

 edge, again sweeping up the hill face; there presenting a sea oF foliage; 

 here openings whose sun-kissed or stook-covered banks only impart a 

 brighter glow to the general scheme of rich autumn colouring. On the 

 high bank between Selkirk and the confluence of the Ettrick and Yarrow, 

 are the stately woods of Haiuing, the property of Mr. Pringle-Pattison, 

 with the pretty sylvan jjleu of Howden beyond. Farther to the west and 

 south is Oikwood Tower, a bosky place famous as the seat of the wizard 

 Michael Si^ofct, and afterwards of Wat Scott of Harden, and now the 

 property of the lineal descendant of both these worthies— Lord Polwarth. 

 The place is thus referred to in ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel : ' — 



' An aged knight to danger steeled, 



With many a moss-trooper came on : 

 Wide lay his lands round Oakwood Tower, 



And wide round haunted Ca^tle-Ower ; 



High over Borthwick's roaring flood, 



His wood-embosomed mansion stood.' 



About a couple of miles from the Royal burgh the main road was left 



and a divergence made into the grounds of Philiphaugh, associated in 



Scottish history with the name of the outlaw Murray, and now the property 



of his direct desceudaut, Sir John Murray. The Miirrays are among the 



most ancient families of the Border, and were of power and consequence 



in the wars between Bruce and Biliol. In 1162 John Murray, of 



Falahill, became herd-keeper to the Queen of James IL, who had received 



in dowry the lands of Deloraine (hence named from de-la-reine, 'belonging 



to the Queen ') and others in Ettrick Forest. Thereafter he was appointed 



custos of the Eoyal hunting seat of Newark and overseer of the Eoyal 



forests. By a charter dated November 30, 1509, his grandson, John 



Murray, of Philiphaugh, was vested by James IV. with the dignity of 



