Anniversary Address. 27 



early part of 1320, in signing a protest to the pope declaring 

 their resolve to uphold Robert Bruce as their sovereign against 

 the usurping policy of England, was discovered in August of 

 the same year to be engaged in a conspiracy against the life 

 of the king, with the object, according to some, of securing 

 the throne for himself. He was convicted of high treason, 

 his estates forfeited, and from this time the name of the family 

 disappears.* 



It is to this William Lord Soulis, " the lord of gramarye," 

 that the evil reputation for cruelty, sorcery, and avarice is 

 attached by popular story. "The charge of magic," says 

 Sir Walter Scott, " has been transferred from the ancient 

 sorcerers to the object of popular resentment of every age. 

 * * * Thus Lord Soulis, Archbishop Sharp, Grierson of 

 Lagg, Graham of Claverhouse, and Viscount Dundee receive 

 from tradition the same supernatural attributes." These 

 traditions have been woven into the beautiful ballads of Lord 

 Soulis and the Cout of Keeldar by the muse of Leyden, where 

 they will long survive the fast -fading stories and recollections 

 of the Border. 



The valley of the Liddel with Hermitage was then given 

 to the king's natural son, who bore the same name, and on 

 his death at the battle of Dupplin, in 1382, they reverted to 

 the crown. 



During the troubled times that followed the death of 

 Robert Bruce, f and the minority of his son David II., of 

 which Edward III. took advantage to renew his attempts 

 against the independence of Scotland, Hermitage was held 

 sometimes by one side, sometimes by the other, as success 

 attended either party. At length it fell into the hands of the 

 Douglases, who long kept possession of it. 



Sir William Douglas, warden of the Western Marches, 

 having been taken prisoner in a skirmish near Lochmaben,J 

 on the 28th March, 1332, was detained in rigorous confine- 

 ment for three years by king Edward, who made many 



* Hailes Ann. II., 108. Balfour Ann. I., 99. 



f Orig. Paroch. I., 356-8. 



+ Rymers Feed. IV., 552. Redpath's Bor. Hist , 302, 315. 



