Meetings of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, by J. Hardy. 425 



In the remains of the old vegetable garden in front of the house, 

 now the lawn, there are some hollies now grown to trees ; and 

 also a few large old fruit trees. The aspect of the place is very 

 much altered since Sir Walter Scott's residence here ; and the 

 outline of the house is different ; and the old approaches now 

 disused are overgrown with grass. 



The house stands on a bluff about forty feet of elevation above 

 the Tweed. The shape behind is rather peculiar, being as one 

 of our members well remarks, like the letter E without the middle 

 stroke ; the intermediate portion having the hue of most 

 antiquity, while the two projecting wings appear like additions 

 to the original plan. The wing of the house to the east was 

 added by General Sir James Eussell, and it must have been an 

 old three-cornered building before. The front is more imposing, 

 and faces to the Tweed ; beneath the armorial bearings over the 

 entrance is the date 1830. " The centre of the house, which is 

 a little higher than the additions," has, Miss Eussell remarks, 

 "been made in the seventeenth century out of the original peel- 

 tower, of which the small staircase windows, built up into the 

 stone work, at the back of the house, are still visible when the 

 plaster is removed, on each side of the present window. An 

 early addition, again, is shown by the gable overlooking the 

 stables ; the first wing has been joined on to this, which makes 

 five different dates in the building." 



Through the courtesy of Miss Eussell, the company was ad- 

 mitted to see the interior of the house, and examine the family 

 portraits and busts, and a variety of antiquities discovered on the 

 estate, or collected elsewhere, which she has preserved. Ashie- 

 steel will be ever memorable, not only as the temporary residence 

 of Sir Walter Scott, but as the seat of a race of gallant warriors, 

 who have won their honours in many a hard-fought struggle in 

 India, and other tropical climes. The following particulars com- 

 municated by Miss Eussell, about the rooms, it is necessary to 

 give, to correct misapprehension, as some things had been imper- 

 fectly pointed out by our guides. " The low square room to the 

 right of the door on entering, now chiefly used as part of the 

 passage, was the old dining-room, and Sir Walter Scott's writing- 

 room. Two of the doors were then windows down to the 

 ground, which his greyhounds used to get in and out at. The 

 small study on the other side of the stone lobby was formerly a 



