ETTRICK — THE BOLD BUCCLEUCH. 103 



mer worm-fishing, there are few stations more suitable 

 than Tiishilaw. Near the head of Rankleburn there are 

 several small lochs — that of Clearburn sending out a 

 small tributary to join Rankleburn, the others being at 

 the head of the Ale- water and its feeders — and there 

 are trout, and we believe perch, in all of them. 



Ettrick parish, through the centre of which the 

 Ettrick flows, is thinly inhabited, there being a popu- 

 lation of only about 500 people to a district 12 miles 

 in length by 10 in breadth. There can thus be only 

 about 100 adult males — surely a falling off since the 

 days when the lairds of Tushilaw, Thirlestane, and 

 Buccleuch, could each raise his troop of armed re- 

 tainers to plunder either on the English border or in 

 the vale of Tweed. There is no district richer in 

 border tradition. In the recesses of a small glen 

 which communicates a rivulet to Rankleburn, was the 

 original hold of the Buccleuch family. It was in this 

 cleugh that the buck was seized by the stalwart 

 Galloway fugitive — according to Satchells' story — 

 and the name originated that has such a long tra- 

 dition, and is now so powerful in the south of Scot- 

 land. At Tushilaw, — 



Where wildered Ettrick wanders by. 

 Loud murmuring to the careless moon, 



Hogg has laid the scene of one of the finest ballads of 

 The Queen's Wake. A little farther up is the old 

 Tower of Thirlestane, the possession of a Scott who 

 was dubbed " ready, aye ready," by his sovereign 

 when other chiefs faltered in offering their spears to 

 support the monarch in his proposal to march into 

 England to wage a foolish and most disastrous war. 



