Mr. Stuart on Kelso. 267 



their court ; here legates were received, royal marriages were 

 celebrated, parliaments and councils were held, a mint was 

 established, and in this fortress Mary, the sister of king 

 Robert Bruce was kept, by orders of Edward I., in an iron 

 cage, from 1306 to 1310. While the castle was in the pos- 

 session of the English, it was besieged by James 11. of Scot- 

 land, and it was here that this monarch met his death by the 

 bursting of one of his cannon. A large holly enclosed by a 

 wall is said by Pennant to mark the spot, which elsewhere is 

 said to be near Floors House. It was at Roxburgh that Mal- 

 colm the maiden granted his great charter of endowment to 

 Kelso, and it may afford an idea of the varied elements of his 

 court, when we find around him as witnessing his grant, 

 among others the three bishops of Glasgow, Moray, and Dun- 

 keld, William the king's brother and Ada his mother, the 

 abbots of Dunfermline, Jedburgh, Newbottle, and Cambus- 

 kenneth, the prior and archdeacon of St. Andrews, the king's 

 chancellor, the archdeacon of Lothian, the chamberlain, the 

 King of the Isles, several earls, with representatives of the 

 families of Umfraville, Sumerville, Moreville, Sules, Cumin, 

 Avenel, Ridel, and Percy. We may also imagine the differ- 

 ent races of which his subjects were composed when we find 

 his charters addressed to the Franks, Angles, Scots, and 

 British or Galwenses of his kingdom, while in those early 

 charters Scotia and Lodonia are often distinguished. 



The burgh of Roxburgh was at one time of such import- 

 ance as to form one of " the court of the four burghs of Scot- 

 land," a court believed to have been instituted by David I., 

 with the view of regulating all matters regarding commerce. 

 In this town schools flourished in early days, and we find 

 notices of the master of the schools of Roxburgh in the year 

 1241. About a century later we get a trace of one of the 

 streets of the burgh, where a chantry (" for ever to endure,") 

 was founded in the church of St. James of Roxburgh, out of 

 a burgage tenement called Blakhall in the Kingstreet of that 

 town — and now nothing material remains to tell us of all the 

 busy life which was for many centuries acted here, and of 

 which without the voice of record we should know nothing. _ 



The members will not fail to examine the remains of the 

 fortified mound called Ringley Hall on the south of the 

 Tweed, a few miles up from Kelso. It is situated on the top 

 of a cliff overhanging the stream, and now forming part of a 

 plantation. It is described as being circular on the top, and 

 measuring about 180 feet in diameter. It seems to have 



