34 Ormiston Hall: its Yciv-Tree [Sess. 



know," of the many that have been executed. The face recalls 

 vividly to my own mind a rather memorable occasion, when Dr 

 Moffat gave an address in a village church not far from Ormis- 

 ton, on a summer Sabbath evening some years ago. " The old 

 man eloquent" became so engrossed with his memories of 

 African scenes, that he forgot the flight of time, continuing 

 his discourse until the shades of night had fallen, and the 

 congregation had at length to be summarily dismissed. In 

 ' The Lives of Eobert and Mary Moffat,' lately written by their 

 son, the Eev. John S. Moffat, the following sentence will be 

 found in the preface : " At the entrance of the grounds " of 

 Ormiston Hall "stands the gardener's house, a substantial 

 stone building, in which Eobert Mofi'at's mother spent her 

 youth a hundred years ago ; and in the churchyard stands a 

 stone to the memory of her parents, William Gardiner and his 

 wife, erected by the Earl of Hopetoun of that date, in whose 

 service they had lived and died." Let us therefore suppose 

 that we have now passed over the mile of road between the 

 village and the entrance to the Hall, and that vre are proceed- 

 ing down the avenue to the mansion-house. This avenue con- 

 sists of stately trees — beech and elm and oak — mostly planted 

 by the John Cockburn, Laird of Ormiston, of whom I have 

 already spoken. The modern house, too, which by -and -by 

 comes in sight, was built originally by the same laird in his 

 later years — in 1745 — though various additions have been 

 made by the Hopetoun family since then. John, fourth Earl 

 of Hopetoun, on succeeding to the title in 1816, lived at 

 Ormiston Hall for a year and a half while Hopetoun House 

 was being enlarged, and made numerous improvements at that 

 time not only on the house but on the whole estate. After his 

 death at Paris, in 1823, his widow, the Dowager Countess of 

 Hopetoun, took up her residence at Ormiston Hall, when 

 further extensive alterations were made both on the house 

 and grounds. It was then that the yew-tree, to be afterwards 

 specially mentioned, was left outside the orchard-wall by the 

 contraction of the orchard — though this is to the advantage of 

 the tree, giving it a more prominent position. Sir Thomas 

 Dick Lauder has described the mansion-house as being "in the 

 tea-canister style of architecture, with three additions to cor- 

 respond, one canister being added to another till the accommo- 



