354 Field Meetings. 



James IV., a circumstance which afterwards connected the 

 castle with a romantic episode in the career of Mary Queen 

 of Scots. In 1566 the fourth and most famous Earl of Both- 

 well was on his Liddesdale estates endeavouring to subdue 

 the troublesome Borderers, and while attempting to seize 

 " Jock Elliot of the Parke," a notorious freebooter, he was 

 severely wounded. " Happy had it been for Mary," says 

 Scott, " had the dagger of the moss-trooper struck more 

 home." Bothwell was carried to Hermitage Castle, and 

 Mary, who was then at Jedburgh, hearing of his illness, 

 mounted her horse and paid a hurried visit to the wounded 

 Warden. She travelled by a circuitous route over a wild 

 country, covering a distance of about thirty miles before she 

 reached the castle; and as she returned to Jedburgh the same 

 evening, the fatigue must have been great. As a matter of 

 fact it brought on a dangerous fever, which almost proved 

 fatal. " Whether," says Scott, " she visited a wounded 

 subject or a lover in danger has been warmly disputed in our 

 latter days." The murder of Darnley took place shortly 

 after, the seizure of Mary by Bothwell, her marriage to 

 the ambitious Earl, and the close of her reign at Carberry, 

 which led to Bothwell fleeing into exile. Hermitage after- 

 wards came into the possession of the Buccleuch family, with 

 whom it still lemains. 



Hermitage Castle and the district immediately surround- 

 ing it were the scene of three of the ballads in the Min- 

 strelsy, two of which, " Lord Soulis " and " The Cout of 

 Keeldar," are by Leyden. The third is the fragmentary but 

 singularly beautiful " Barthram's Dirge," which was 

 received by Scott from Surtees, who said he had taken it 

 down from the recitation of an old woman who weeded his 

 garden. Scott accepted and printed the ballad in the belief 

 that it was genuinely ancient, but it afterwards transpired 

 that it was simply a clever forgery by the accomplished 

 Surtees. All three ballads, though modern, are admirably in 

 keeping with the sentiment of the place, and with the wild 

 and lawless deeds which make up the stormy history of the 

 castle and the country which surround it. Scott frequently 

 visited the castle when making what he called his annual 



