Meetings of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, by J. Hardy. 405 



the Scottish monarch with Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. of 

 England. Consequently the Cockburnspath cross is not earlier 

 than that date, the lordship and lands having been conferred on 

 the young queen as her dowry, and the cross indicated where her 

 markets or fairs for the barony were held. Cockburnspath did 

 not belong, as is sometimes supposed, to the Lords Home, 

 although temporarily they managed the property for the crown. 

 Passing from the Dunbars, Earls of March, by their forfeiture in 

 1434, Cockburnspath lordship was gifted to Alexander, Duke of 

 Albany, and on his relapse into treasonable practices against his 

 brother, was annexed to the crown in 1487. Erom his marriage 

 with the dowager Queen Margaret, the Earl of Angus came to 

 hold the lands and castle. They were then bestowed on Stuart, 

 Earl of Bothwell, but he was soon disinherited, and Cockburns- 

 path reverted once more to the crown, from which Sir John 

 Arnot, treasurer depute of Scotland, had a grant of it in " kindly 

 tenandrie" in the reign of James YI. He left it to his second 

 son, William Arnot, who became bankrupt, and was forced to 

 sell the lands of Coldbrandspath and Granton to Mr Thomas 

 Nicolson, advocate, who died in 1625. He had a son, Sir James 

 Nicolson of Cockburnspath, who died in 1690 — Sir Thomas 

 Nicolson of Lasswade, being his heir male. Involved in debt, 

 the Nicolsons were compelled to sell Cockburnspath by public 

 roup, and it was purchased in 1694 by the highest creditor, Sir 

 John Hall, the first baronet-, of Dunglass ; and it still remains 

 with his descendant. Cockburnspath Parish was erected after 

 the Reformation, at the expense of Colclingham, Oldhamstocks, 

 and Abbey St. Bathans. Previously it ranked only as a 

 chapelanrie of Oldhamstocks. In this state of dependency it is 

 old, the chapelanrie and hospital being mentioned in combina- 

 tion. The seal of Master Robert, the chaplain of Colbranspath 

 is affixed to a charter given at Ay ton in 1255. The title of 

 Master belonged to the hospital — a leper hospital, no doubt, it 

 was, where some of the local victims of an incurable and loath- 

 some disease found refuge and support. 



In leaving the village several plants, used by the old inhabi- 

 tants either for food or medicine, were remarked ; and the same 

 at Oldhamstocks, such as Wormwood, Mugwort, Good Henry, 

 Hemlock, and the smaller Mallow. The Yellow Toad-flax 

 abounds on the hedge bank near Dovecothall, and again above 



