202 FIELD MEETINGS. 
Earlston Castle. 
By this time the optimists of the party were feeling justi- 
fied, for the weather had cleared, and after greeting Mr 
Alexander Milroy and Mr G. P. H. Watson, architect to the 
Ancient Monuments Commission, the short journey to Earlston 
Castle was accomplished. At Earlston they were warmly 
welcomed by Colonel Murray Kennedy of Knocknalling, on 
whose invitation the excursion had been made, and the Castle 
of the Gordons was inspected. It presents a good example of 
the L-shaped type of house built by the landed proprietor to- 
wards the close of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. 
It had cellars, a large dining hall on the first floor, bedrooms 
and attics above. Comfort was beginning to replace the need 
for defence, and at Earlston can still be seen the panelling of 
early 18th century date, which indicates the elegance and 
taste of the residents of Earlston Castle. The ancient oak 
associated with Queen Mary still stands near by to recall that 
Mary gifted the lands of Earlston to Bothwell. When mis- 
fortune befell her and she took her sad way into England, it 
is said that she looked at Earlston, shuddered, and passed on. 
From the Hepburns the estate passed to the Sinclairs, and 
from them by marriage to the Gordons of Airds, whose terri- 
torial designation it became. Three successive lairds wrote 
their names large in the covenanting history of the district, 
having an hereditary interest in religion as descendants of 
Alexander the first of Airds, an early adherent of the Refor- 
mation. William Gordon and his son, Alexander, were both 
at Bothwell Bridge, and William met his death there. 
Alexander escaped by clothing himself in woman’s apparel 
and rocking a cradle while the King’s troops searched the 
house. He escaped to Holland, but returning he was taken 
prisoner, charged with complicity in the Rye House Plot, and 
threatened with torture. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh 
Castle, the Bass Rock, and Blackness until the Revolution. 
The Gordons remained owners of Earlston until 17q9. when 
the lands were purchased by William Forbes of Aberdeen, with 
whose descendants they remain. 
At Earlston Castle the visitors were entertained to a light 
