88 Notes on Cummertrees. 



Eng-Iand." And therefore, when it is said that Lord llerries built 

 " the house of Hoddomstaines," it may be taken as meaning that 

 he rebuilt it after its demolition on that, occasion. '■ The Castle," 

 it is stated in the additions to Camden, " was soon after sur- 

 rendered to the Regent Murray, and before the accession of James 

 VI. was one of the places of defence on the borders : — ' To be 

 keeped with one wise stout man, and to have with him four well 

 horsed men, and these to have two stark footmen servants to keep 

 their horses, and the principal to have one stout footman.' " The 

 walls are of great thickness. Additions have been made to it from 

 time to time, tlie most important being- those carried by General 

 Sharpe and the present proprietor. 



Repentance Tower stands on the crown of a hill directly to 

 the south of Hoddom Castle, and may be reached by a quarter of 

 an hour's walk from that place. Its walls are 6 feet thick and 

 about 30 feet high ; and it measures 23 feet 9 inches by 21 feet fi 

 inches. On the top there is an erection for holding the alarm 

 fires. In the old family history referred to, it is said to have 

 been built by Lord Herries to be a beacon. There may have 

 been something of the kind on the spot previously; at auyrate 

 it is certain that there was a beacon there a good while before 

 his day. For immediately after the sudden and unexpected raid 

 which the English made into Dumfriesshire in 1448, when they 

 burnt Dumfries, William, eighth Earl of Douglas, summoned a 

 convention, which met at Lincluden Abbey, at which the whole 

 question of the beacon fires was considered, and among the arrang-e- 

 ments adopted for putting matters in that respect on a more 

 satisfactory footing, Trailtrow (now called Repentance Hill) was 

 one of eleven places in Annandale where the Sheriff was appointed 

 to see that men were employed to erect and light the beacons. 

 The name Repentance came afterwards, but as to how it origi- 

 nated no authentic account exists. Human ingenuity has been 

 much exercised to discover its origin, if one may judge from the 

 number of fables it has invented. One story is that Lord Herries, 

 having used the stones of the old Chapel of Trailtrow in buildiug 

 the house of Hoddomstaines, and having afterwards been sorry for 

 the sacrilegious act, raised the tower as a memorial of his repent- 

 ance. Another is that when returning by sea from a raid into 

 England, and being in great danger of shipwreck, he vowed that 

 if he escaped he would, as an atonement for his misdeeds, build a 



