102 On Chirnside Parish : the Estate of Edington. 



had a decree passed against them in absence, for keeping 

 conventicles*. On the 20th May, 1691, "David Cowan in 

 Idingtoune, John Cowan there, David Cowan, in Ploughland," 

 are members of the Rev. Henry Areskine's Kirk Session *f\ 

 Some of them were doubtless the men that compromised the 

 Laird of Edington with the Government. They were his 

 own tenantry. Chirnside is the only locality in Berwick- 

 shire where a Cameronian church continues to the present 

 day.] 



[The castellated manor-house of Edington, which stood 

 about a hundred yards southward from the turnpike road 

 leading from Berwick to Dunse, must not be confounded 

 with the bastle, or tower.] It was surrounded with a deep 

 moat, part of which still remains. All that now survives is 

 a wall of seven or eight feet in height, and about fifty feet 

 in length, which appears to have formed the south side of 

 the building, saved because it forms part of Edington 

 market-garden wall. Ninety years ago — viz., 1778 — a 

 considerable portion of its walls were standing, and while 

 removing some of the rubbish, the gardener, it is said, found 

 no contemptible treasure, which enabled him to rise in the 

 world and become the ancestor of a race of farmers in the 

 district. 



In December, 1834, there was taken down an old farm 

 house at Edington. It was supposed to have stood 140 

 years or thereabout. Like most old edifices it was 

 haunted by an unquiet spirit or ghost, because it had been 

 the scene of a murder or murders in times long gone by. In 

 1766 and downwards, this house was tenanted by a Dr. 

 Colin Lauder, who farmed a portion of the adjoining lands. 

 Like the most of the farmers in those days, eighty years ago 

 (when the author wrote), he was no way eminent as an 

 agriculturist ; my father recollected to have seen some of 

 his fields, consisting of the finest land in the Merse, so over- 

 run with thistles that it was difficult to perceive the corn 

 for them. Though Dr. Lauder did not practice as a physician, 

 he occasionally prescribed for the benefit of his neighbours ; 

 and our informant says that his prescription for a pain in 

 the bowels was, " soot mixed with a draught of new milk " ; 

 and for a bleeding at the nose, " the powder of a dried toad 

 snuffed up the nostrils " ; for an income of the hand, " a 



* Wodiow, ii , p. 326. 

 t " History of the Club," Hi , p. 191. 



