6 THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 



nature, for, to its romantic beauty in the spring and early 

 summer months, would be added the charm of 



A pair of Falcons wheeling on the wing, 

 In clamorous agitation. 



WORDSWORTH, Excursion. 



My friend Dr. Stuart of Chirnside mentions that his 

 brother-in-law, the late Mr. Abraham Edgar of Hutton 

 Manse, was lowered over the cliff at the " Blue Braes " 

 with a rope, about 1826, and took the young Falcons 

 from the nest. 1 The Peregrine seems to have occasionally 

 frequented this neighbourhood for some years afterwards, 

 for Mrs. Fairbairn, late of Allanton, relates that a specimen 

 in the second year's plumage was shot between Hutton 

 Hall and the "Blue Braes" in 1833. 2 The red scaur, 

 which is now the home of a colony of Jackdaws, can be 

 seen from a distance in the direction of Chirnside, and as it 

 is of considerable height and precipitous, it was one of the 

 most suitable places on the banks of the Whitadder for the 

 eyrie of the Falcon. The rock under which the nest was 

 placed has now fallen down, and the Peregrine has not 

 bred there for the last sixty years. 3 



Lady John Scott-Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode has been 

 so good as to inform me that, in former times, a " Blue 

 Hunting Hawk " used to rear its young at Corbie's Heugh 

 a crag over the Bruntiburn on Eaecleugh Farm ; 4 and 

 Mr. Peter Scott, Lauder, whose father was for many years 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Clitb, vol. xi. p. 242. 



2 Information from Mrs. Fairbairn on the 17th of October 1887. 



3 Mr. William Patterson, late of North Berwick Abbey Farm, who, when he 

 was a boy, lived near Duns, has informed me that his father told him that the 

 Laird of Hutton Hall estate, on which the Falcon's nest at the "Blue Braes" was 

 situated, had a pair of trained Falcons for hawking, and getting tired of keeping 

 them, gave them their liberty. They remained in the neighbourhood of Hutton 

 Hall and nested in the red scaur. This occurred about the middle of last century, 

 and was said to have been the origin of the Falcon's nest at the "Blue Braes." 



4 Letter from Mr. P. Stormonth Darling, Kelso, her ladyship's factor, dated 

 the 5th of March 1886. 



