INTRODUCTION. xix 



bourhood of the scanty patches of corn, Godscroft recording 

 in 1611 that Sir George Home of Wedderburn took them 

 with Palcons in the latter part of the previous century.^ 

 The Pheasant had not then been introduced. 



Birds of prey abounded — the White-Tailed Eagle soared 

 in the sky, the Peregrine, the Merlin, and the Sparrow- 

 Hawk swept the hills and the plains, whilst the Buzzard 

 and the Hen-Harrier hunted the fields and marshes. The 

 hoarse cry of the Eaven was ever present, and the chatter- 

 ing of the Magpie and the Jay was constantly heard in the 

 wooded valleys. 



In the early part of the eighteenth century the sur- 

 face of the Merse, which had remained bare for ages, began 

 to be transformed once more. The proprietors enclosed, 

 planted, and drained their lands, which, under the skilful 

 management of the tenants, now bore luxuriant crops of 

 grain, where previously the rush flourished and the reed 

 was cut for thatching the cottage of the peasant. The lochs, 

 swamps, and bogs gradually disappeared until only a few 

 of the largest remained. Amongst these was Billie Mire, a 

 deep and extensive morass which lay along a narrow valley 

 from the vicinity of Ayton to the neighbourhood of Chirnside, 

 a distance of about five miles. Besides being of great interest 

 from an ornithological point of view as the former haunt of 

 the Hen-Harrier, the Bittern, and innumerable wild-fowl, it 

 was famous in border history for having formed an impass- 

 able barrier to the English invaders, and for a treaty be- 

 tween the two kingdoms concluded on its banks in 1386.^ 

 The drainage of this great bog, which for ages had been the 

 resort of myriads of water- fowl, was begun in 1801, but for 

 some years later the Harrier continued to nest in the sedges, 

 and the " Bull o' the Mire" boomed from the reeds. About 



1 History of the Homes of Wedderbtcrn, by David Home of Godscroft. 1611. 

 3 See Carr's History of Coldivgliam Priory, pp. 31, 32. 



