50 A Cuntury's Changes. 



execution. The latter is more properly called moothill than 

 moat. From the absence of any traces of defence at Hutton — 

 trench or stonework— it probably was of the latter class ; and 

 we can picture the rude inhabitants of the valley gathering to it 

 somewhat as Freeman in the opening chapter of his " Growth of 

 the English Constitution " has pictured the inhabitants of TJri in 

 Switzerland gathering to their moothill once a year to the 

 present day, and as the people of the Isle of Man gather to their 

 moothill also. 



A more modern relic, further up Dryfe, is the tower, or castle, 

 of the Grahams, rising sheer out of the water, of which only the 

 stone and lime foundations, and the fosse that protected it on the 

 landward side, remain. A notable Border exploit, related in the 

 ballad of " Christie's Will," which Sir Walter Scott has included 

 in his collection, is associated with this tower. Here in brief is 

 the epic. In Charles I.'s reign Lord Traquair of that day had 

 got into a lawsuit, and he discovered in the course of it that the 

 judgment was likely to go against him. Moreover, that it 

 would depend on the voice of the presiding judge, who, in the 

 case of an equality of opinion among his brethren, has a casting 

 vote. But Traquair was determined, and his resources when he 

 found himself in the difficulty weie of the true Border character. 

 He engaged a famous Border reiver, Armstrong of Gilnockie, in 

 the parish of Canonbie, to carry off the man of law, Lord Durie, 

 till the trouble might be past. It was a job after Armstrong's 

 heart, and he accomplished it with the most creditable despatch, 

 as one used to such doings might accomplish it. He found Lord 

 Durie taking his afternoon ride on Leith Sands, unaccompanied 

 by an attendant, seized him, bound him, muffled him in a cloak, 

 and brought him quickly across country to the tower of the 



Grahams. 



" Willie he hied to the tower o' Gritme, 

 He took auld Durie on his back, 

 He shot him down to the dungeon deep, 



Which garred his auld banes gae mony a crack. 

 For nineteen days and nineteen nights 



Of sun or moon or midnight stern, 

 Auld Durie never saw a blink, 



The lodging was so dark and dern." 



And after his liberation he never knew where he had been con- 

 fined till one day, travelling in Annandale, he heard a shepherd 

 calling " Batty" to his dog, and an old woman crying "Maudge" 



