THE HIKSEL 



ridge are all that mark the birthplace of the War 

 of Independence. Although no part of British soil 

 has been so often soaked with good blood than this 

 vale between Birgham and Coldstream, for the 

 Tweed becomes from Birgham downwards the frontier 

 dividing the two realms, yet nowhere have the 

 traces of conflict been more completely effaced 

 by a veil of verdure and flowers than in Lord 

 Home's pleasant demesne of the Hirsel. 



" Poor heart ! above thy field of sorrow sighing 

 For broken faith and love untimely slain, 

 Leave thou the soil wherein thy dead are lying 

 To the soft sunlight and the cleansing rain. 

 Love works in silence, hiding all the traces 

 Of bitter conflict on the trampled sod, 

 And time shall show thee all earth's battle- places 

 Veiled by the hand of God." 



The very name The Hirsel signifying a sheep-fold, 

 breathes pastoral tranquillity, the very antithesis of 

 Lord Home's other residences, to wit 



" The aventurous castell of Douglass, 

 That to kep sa peralous was " 



a place of such wrathful memories that Sir Walter 

 Scott chose it for the scene of his gloomy romance, 

 Castle Dangerous; and Both well Castle on the Clyde, 

 where the Earls of Hereford and Angus and a few of 

 King Edward's most famous knights sought refuge 

 from the fatal field of Bannockburn, for it was almost 

 the only Scottish fortress where the English flag 

 still flew. 



85 



