Anniversary Address. 15 



the occult sciences, studies at that time in great repute, were 

 less entitled to respect, but several of the victims were doubt- 

 less deserving and innocent men, whose only crime was the 

 favour of their prince.* 



From the bridge the members proceeded to the East Lodge, 

 were carriages were in waiting to convey them to Blythe, 

 four or five miles distant on the Greenlaw road, which skirts 

 the Boondreigh valley. Two miles brought us to Thirlstane, 

 the original seat of the Maitland family, now a farm house 

 by the river side. At the village or steading, close to the 

 road, is the site of the convent, the only trace of which is an 

 oblong ruin said to have been the chapel. Above Thirlstane 

 rises the Hill of Boon, on which a pillar marks the site of the 

 ancient alarm beacon, and a stone cross on the side of the 

 hill points out the scene of some former crime. The family 

 of Maitland, or as it was originally written Mautlant, have 

 been settled here from a very early period. In the thirteenth 

 century, Sir Richard Maitland, the third of that name on 

 record, was in possession of Thirlstane, Blythe, Tullos (Tollis), 

 and Hadderwick, during the reign of Alexander III. William, 

 the eighth in succession, is designated of Thirlstane and 

 Lethington (the latter being that by which they are most 

 commonly distinguished), and held a charter from Archibald, 

 Earl of Douglas, of the same lands, dated 1432. Sir Richard 

 of Lethington and Thirlstane, the twelfth in the line, was 

 not only a distinguished lawyer and judge, but a successful 

 cultivator of the muses. On his resignation of his seat on 

 the bench in 1582, James VI. wrote to him commending his 

 zeal and integrity in the public service during four reigns, 

 which would embrace a period of 70 years. Of his two sons, 

 William Maitland, younger, of Lethington, better known 

 as Secretary Lethington, played a conspicuous part in the 

 troubled politics of the period, from the death of James V. to 



* "Among these base men, there was one gentleman of good birth, but he seeing 

 tbe King's inclination, had set himself to follow it in all things ; wherefore he 

 had given his daughter to Robert Cochrane in marriage, as a bond of friendship 

 and societie ; his name was Thomas Preston." Hume of Godscroft ; Ho. of 

 Doug. p. 222. See Tytler Hist., IV., 257-283. Ed. Tait, 1842. 



