326 The Family of Riddell, by Thomas Arkle. 



will of Sir Anchitell de Eidale, in favour of his son Walter, con- 

 veying the lands of Lilliesclive and others, dated 10th March, 

 1180. All the original documents are now in the possession of 

 Sir Walter Eiddell, of Hepple, in the county of Northumberland, 

 the representative of the family, who has had copies of them 

 carefully written out. They afford striking evidence of the 

 widely distributed power of the Church of Eome, and of her 

 multitudinous and minute interferences in the concerns of her ad- 

 herents ; when, as in this instance, in a remote part of Scotland, 

 it was thought necessary to invoke the aid of His Holiness, for 

 the purpose of strengthening the claims of a son to the inheritance 

 of his ancestors. 



Several of the succeeding lairds of Lilliesleaf received the 

 honour of knighthood; and on the 14th of May, 1628, John 

 Eiddell, then owner of the estate, had a baronetcy conferred 

 upon him. This was about three years after the institution of 

 the order in Scotland. 



We must pass over his successors for nearly two hundred years, 

 until we come to the late Sir John Buchanan Eiddell, the ninth 

 baronet, who was Member of Parliament for the Selkirk Burghs. 

 He was a great agriculturist, and as such, was much in advance 

 of the times in which he lived. Having greatly enlarged his 

 estate, he took most of it into his own hand, and according to the 

 observations of Scott, as reported by Lockhart, superintended per- 

 haps a hundred ploughs. He died in April, 1819, aged fifty-one 

 years, leaving his affairs in a very involved condition, in conse- 

 quence of the numerous projects and immense improvements in 

 which he was engaged. 



His brother-in-law, the Earl of Eomney, being left trustee, 

 visited Eiddell, when his lordship finding matters extremely com- 

 plicated, unfortunately came to the resolution of parting with the 

 estate. Though the price of corn was comparatively high, late 

 harvests had rendered the crops, particularly in the northern 

 part of the island, of little worth ; and the decline in value of 

 other sorts of landed produce had brought the agricultural com- 

 munity into the most depressed condition ; whilst at the same 

 time the resumption of a gold currency, instead of £ 1 notes, had 

 most seriously affected the banking and commercial interests 

 throughout Great Britain. Under these adverse circumstances, 

 the estate was sold in 1826, after great reductions in the upset 



