ETTRICK THE BOLD BUCCLEUCH. 107 



flood, great quantities may often be taken. For sum- 

 mer worm-fishing, there are few stations more suitable 

 than Tushilaw. Near the head of Kankleburn there are 

 several small lochs that of Clearburn sending out a 

 small tributary to join Kankleburn, 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, Thirlstane, 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 Kankleburn, was the 

 original hold of the Buccleuch family. It was in this 

 cleuch 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 Thirlstane, 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 



