Anniversary Address. 43 



9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a state of insensibility, from which she 

 was only restored by the care and attention of Master Nawe 

 or Nau, her physician. She did not return to Edinburgh 

 till the 7th December, after which Darnley's murder, her 

 seizure by Bothwell, her marriage and the close of her reign 

 at Carberry, which drove Bothwell into exile with the for- 

 feiture of his estates and dignities, again brought Hermitage 

 into the possession of the crown, 29th December, 1567. 



Twenty years later James VI. conferred the forfeited 

 Bothwell titles and estates on his cousin Francis Stewart,* 

 who by his mother was likewise the nephew of the late earl. 

 He repaid his benefactor by the grossest ingratitude, and 

 after a succession of seditious outbreaks and more than one 

 attempt to seize the king's person, he also was attainted f and 

 fled the kingdom. He had married lady Margaret Douglas, 

 widow of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleugh, and in consequence 

 of this alliance is said to have made over his Liddisdale 

 estates to his step-son before entering on his treasonable 

 courses. Certain it is that Liddisdale and Hermitage next 

 came into the possession of the Buccleugh family, with which 

 they still remain. 



On the accession of James VI. to the throne of England, 

 the hostility of the Border clans gradually gave way to 

 habits of peace and goodwill, and Hermitage, ceasing to be 

 a place of importance, was abandoned as a post of defence 

 and fell to decay. It gave the title of viscount to Henry, 

 third son of Anne duchess of Buccleugh and Monmouth, 

 created earl of Delorain, viscount Hermitage, &c, by queen 

 Anne on the 29th March, 1706, which became extinct on the 

 death of the fourth earl in 1807. 



Time did not permit us to visit the site of the old castle and 

 church, about 3 miles above the present town, which our guides 



MSS., part 3, No. lvii. The transcript prints the place from which it is dated as 

 "Indbrough," whereas it is clearly "Jedbrough," and this is the more remarkable 

 as several of Maitland's letters, really written from Edinburgh, and occurring 

 both before and after No. lvii., have the name distinctly spelt " Edinbrough." 



* Charter under the Great Seal, 29th July, 1587. 



t 21 July, 1593, Acts of Pari., IV., 8. 



