The Environs of Craiginillar. 173 



4th September 1650, says : " What officers of theirs 

 of quahty are killed we cannot yet learn, but surely 

 divers are ; and many men of quality are mortally 

 wounded, as Colonel Lumsden, the Lord Liberton, 

 and others." In The Inch House is carefully treasured 

 a sword which is said to have belonged to Oliver Crom- 

 well. An inscription on the blade records the follow- 

 ing : " Belonged to Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, 

 Naseby Battle, June 14, 1646 ; Dunbar Battle, 

 September 3, 1650. Praise to the Lord of Hosts." 



The Inch was acquired by the Gilmours about 

 the same time that they bought Craigmillar, but when 

 they came to reside there does not appear to be 

 recorded. Various additions were made to the house 

 at the beginning of this century, but the present pro- 

 prietor demolished the greater part of these, and recon- 

 structed it in the old baronial style, in 1891-92. 



Up till very recently there stood at the side of 

 the western avenue of The Inch a group of pictu- 

 resque old thatched cottages, which formed the sub- 

 ject of many an artist's canvas. These cottages were 

 a remnant of the village of Nether Liberton. This 



