Mr. J. Tait oil BarUtoun. 269 



initials represent Sir John Home and Violet Ker Home, his 

 wife, one of the Cessford Kers. In a room of this mansion 

 Queen Mary spent a night on her way to Jedburgh and Her- 

 mitage, and a chestnut tree near the house is said to have 

 been planted by her royal hands. On the stone casement of 

 the window of Queen Mary's room is an inscription partially 

 effaced, but the words still decipherable are the following : — 



" Feir God, flee from synne, 

 And mak for ye lyfe everlastying." 



Close to the mansion is a square tower on which is carved the 

 date of its erection, 1555. On the banks of the Leader, less 

 than a hundred yards from the mansion, are the remains of 

 a fortalice or more properly a dungeon, in a very peculiar 

 position. It is strongly built in the face of a bank overlook- 

 ing the river, and the roof of the tower is only level with the 

 top of the bank. In the upper storey are two dark rooms, 

 in one of which is a trap-door, through which possibly pri- 

 soners have been let down in the olden time into the dungeon 

 below. Regarding the age of this fortress there is no record. 



The mansion of Cowdenknowes is beautifully situated on 

 the left bank of the Leader, and is surrounded with abund- 

 ance of trees, both indigenous and exotic. On the western 

 slope of the hill above, there once flourished in great luxuri- 

 ance " the broom of the Cowdenknowes " that has been so 

 justly celebrated in song and ballad. Some of this broom is 

 said to have been twenty feet high, with a stem eight inches 

 in diameter. Gradually it became circumscribed with advan- 

 cing cultivation, while the thick stems were carried off" and 

 converted into ornaments ; and the last of it was killed by 

 the severe frost in the winter of 1861-2. 



Towering above Cowdenknowes on the south side is the 

 peculiar conical peak known as the Black Hill, on the top of 

 which are the remains of an Ancient British fortlet, around 

 which three different rampiers are discernible. A number of 

 hollows may be seen in which the primaeval Britons have 

 apparently dwelt in the far distant past. The summit is 

 also encircled by an old British trackway, on which there is 

 much vitrified stone, but there is no appearance of any vitri- 

 fied fort. 



