Notes on Max ton , by the Rev. M. H. Graham. 219 



but where the pillar stood it is now vain to conjecture. The 

 stone will be exhibited to-day. 



Before I leave the village, I must not omit to remind you 

 that it was here there was born and for some time lived, the 

 " fair maid Lilliard ;" the memory of whose martial chivalry 

 on Ancrum Moor in 1545, still lives enshrined in the hearts of 

 every gallant Maxtonian. Having lost her lover, so runs the 

 familiar story, during the savage raids of Sir Ralph Evers, 

 the commander of Henry VIIl.'s forces, she vowed eternal 

 enmity against the English — for "revenge is sweet, especially 

 in women." Accordingly, Avhen one of the Scotch and English 

 divisions met on the lands of Muirhouselaw (the genuine scene, 

 I am persuaded, of the conflict), our heroine hastened to join 

 the force under the Earls of Arran and Angus, resolved to 

 avenge her lover's death. Poor lass ! she fought and fell. 

 But the story of her tragic valour has been preserved in four 

 touching lines of verse, inscribed originally, it is said, on a 

 cross erected to her memory on the spot where she was killed 

 and buried. Thus they ran : — 

 " Fair maid Lilliard lies under this stane; 



Little was her stature, but great was her fame ; 



On the English loons she laid many thumps, 



And when her legs were cutten off she fought upon her stumps." 

 Alas, for the chivalric spirit of the age ! fair Lilliard's cross 

 is gone — gone like herself, both stump and rump — and all 

 that we have thus to perpetuate her fame is something like a 

 grave-yard stone, also smashed, but bearing pretty legibly the 

 old inscription. I have said that the chief scene of the battle 

 of Ancrum Moor must be placed in this parish. A recent 

 writer thinks not, because a heron rose on wing as Angus 

 reached the ridge of the moor ; so he concludes it must have 

 been feeding near the moss at Farnington. But he forgets 

 that there was a lake in those days, and even down to 1820, 

 on the site now occupied by the Muirhouselaw tile works ; 

 and it is more likely therefore, that his heronship might have 

 been munching on his favourite dish of eels, than feeding on 

 the less savoury frogs of a bog, Q. E, D. 



Let us now go down to Littledean Tower, about a mile 

 and a quarter to the east of the village. On an extensive 

 plateau — having on the north side the Tweed, running broad 

 and swift at this base, and on the east a great deep dean — 

 stands the fine ruin of a once splendid, but now sadly dis- 

 mantled, Border Pele. It formed the residence of a well- 



