Mr. A. M'Laren on a Stone Coffin. 819 



ent parcels. The parcel which was burdened with the obli- 

 gation of furnishing the guard, was purchased by a Mr. 

 Douglas, and now belongs to a Mr. Scott, who sends two or 

 three armed men to the Circuit Court at Jedburgh, when a 

 justiciary judge comes there to try prisoners. 



The following extract from Robert Macfarlane's Geo- 

 graphical collections, published in 1749, illustrates the matter 

 now referred to : — 



" The Lord Cranstoun is the coroner of the shire of Rox- 

 burgh, since King James VI., and guards the criminal courts 

 there. His servants keep the bar, for which he hath so much 



of every pannel, and so much of each confiscate." " Lord 



Cranstoun was advanced by King James to the dignity of a 

 Lord Baron for his good services done in the Border, when 

 he was lieutenant to the earl of Dunbar, who was made cap- 

 tain of the guard, when King James went to England, which 

 guard was erected at that time, when the warden office 

 ceased. Tlie last captain of the guard was Andrew Master of 

 Jedburgh, which office, called the Blew Benders, died with 

 him in anno 1628, and was never again revived till the restor- 

 ation of king Charles II." 



The office of coroner, or crowner in Scotland, was subor- 

 dinate to that of sheriff. He had it in his power, when the 

 persons to be apprehended were more than usually formid- 

 able, to call on the sheriff for assistance. 



Account of a Stone Coffin found in the old churchyard of 

 Coldstream Abbey, in a Letter to the President. 



Hope Park, Coldstream, 

 1th August, 1861. 

 Dear Sir, 



At your request, I send you an account of where, 

 and when the Stone Coffin was found, which I pointed out to 

 you last Monday, built into the wall of my stable. 



About 30 or 40 years since, I resided in a house at Tweed- 

 green, close to the isle belonging to the Lees family, and a 

 short distance from where the river Leet enters the Tweed. 

 The ground on which my house Avas built, and the open space 

 in front, was formerly part of the old churchyard of Cold- 

 stream Abbey, and is pointed out by tradition, as the spot 

 where many of the nobles and great men, who fell at Flodden 



