42 Anniversary Address. 



slane. And the said theif that hurt my lord Bothwill de- 

 ceissit within ane myle, upon ane hill, of the woundis gottin 

 fra my lord Bothwill of befoir."* 



Eight days later, or on the I5th October, queen Mary paid 

 her celebrated visit to the wounded warden. The distance 

 from Jedburgh to the castle is 22| or 23 miles as the crow 

 flies. It has been supposed that she took a somewhat cir- 

 cuitous road by Hawick ;f but there is no evidence of this. 

 I am inclined to believe that she proceeded by the most 

 direct line, which even now a horseman acquainted with the 

 country would follow. Thus leaving Jedburgh by the town- 

 head and passing the castle, she would proceed along the base 

 of the Dunion across Swinnie-moor into Rule water, thence 

 across the Earlside-moor to Colifort-hill, crossing the Slitrig 

 below Stobs and leaving Hawick considerably to the right. 

 The path would then pass Whitlaw, Flex, and Priesthaugh, 

 and on between Greatmoor and Caldcleugh-hills to the head 

 of the Braidlee-burn, where is the morass into which her 

 palfrey sank, still called the Queen's-mire. From Braidlee- 

 burn is but a short and easy descent into the Hermitage 

 valley. The whole distance must be considerably over thirty 

 miles, and when it is remembered that Mary returned to 

 Jedburgh the same evening, and that the shortness of the 

 days at that season allowed her little time to rest, it is not 

 surprising that such great fatigue, three months after her 

 confinement, brought on a dangerous illness. Favourable 

 symptoms appearing on the 22nd and 23rd, her secretary, 

 Lethington, wrote to Cecil on the 24th, reporting her con- 

 valescence,^: but on the 25th she had a relapse, and lay from 



* Diurnal of Occurrents, 100. 



t The way by Hawick would have taken her considerably more to the west- 

 ward, crossing the Dunion to Bedrule and skirting Ruberslaw to the valley of 

 the Teviot, which she would reach between Denholm and Cavers. Her course 

 would then lie along the river through Hawick to the Allan water, following 

 which to theDod-rig she would reach the Queen's mire. 



The route by Rule water, skirting "Windburgh to Langburn-shiels, Whitter- 

 hope, and Ninestane-rig, though very direct would not strike the Queen's mire, 

 and the only other line by the Knot-i'-the-Gate is too far to the eastward. 



% This letter is given by Sir Henry James in his Fac-similes of National 



