Field Meetings, 351 



there were constant disputes as to whether Canonbie be- 

 longed to Scotland or England, lying as it did in the 

 debatable land, and both the Priory and its church are sup- 

 posed to have been destroyed after the defeat of the Scots at 

 Solway Moss in 1542. The Priory and church lands, how- 

 ever, are referred to in 1587 as having become the property 

 of the Crown by the General Annexation Act of that year, 

 and in 1606 they were conferred on Alexander, Earl of Home, 

 on whom devolved the duty of paying the minister's stipend 

 and supplying the communion elements. In 1619 the lands 

 became the property of Walter, first Earl of Buccleuch, who 

 obtained them by purchase. Only the sedilia of the Priory 

 now remains, and it occupies a prominent position in the 

 churchyard. A tablet to the memory of the Rev. James 

 Donaldson, a former minister of Canonbie, has been inserted 

 in it. 



The route now led through .the beautiful \alley of 

 Liddesdale witli its memorials of fighting Armstrongs and 

 Elliots of former days, and so by way of the well-built village 

 of Newcastleton, founded over a century ago by the Buc- 

 cleuch family, to the side road branching to the left which 

 leads up the picturesque valley through which runs the 

 Hermitage Water. Hermitage Castle was reached shortly 

 after one o'clock. 



The magnificent remains of Hermitage Castle are 

 situated among green and lonely hills in a sequestered 

 region on the north bank of the Hermitage Water. It would 

 appear that the reason for the selection of the site was that 

 two streams fall into the Hermitage Water at this point, and, 

 running one on each side of the castle, they \\-ould provide 

 a plentiful supply of water for the numerous ditches by which 

 for defensive purposes the castle was surrounded. Exter- 

 nally the castle is in a state of almost perfect preservation, 

 and with the lofty hills behind it and the pebbly stream 

 running in front of its walls it forms a most impressixe sight. 

 The interior is in a somewhat ruinous condition, though it 

 is still possible to identify many of the apartments of the 

 building and to mark the evidences of the enlargements 

 which were made upon it at various times in its history. 



