24 Report of Meetings for 1S79, by James Hardy. 



deep. The body had been doubled up. Along with bones were 

 found a few beads of shaly coal, and a part of a fibula of the 

 same material. The cranium and the bones were small, and 

 were conjectured to belong to a female.* 



The road now passed Blinkbonnie farm. Looking across the 

 Kale, several large oak trees on the further bank were still leaf- 

 less, or only sparsely foliaged, shewing the rigorous incidence 

 of the past winter's severity in some peculiarly situated localities. 

 The furze and broom by the wayside were mostly killed to the 

 ground. Here we looked up the valley of the Kale to Caverton 

 Mill, a prospect rather tame, but not unpleasant. Nearing 

 Marleheld, the shrubs planted on the wayside by Sir Gilbert 

 Bennet drew attention. They are now considerably thinned out ; 

 Epilobium angusUfolium is very plentiful, and there are also Crab- 

 apples, Snow-berries, Privets, Honeysuckle, and common 

 Guelder-rose ; but what chiefly merited attention was a profuse 

 growing slender-stalked shrubby &pirma. This has obovate 

 wedge-shaped leaves, which have an apiculus and are slightly 

 puberulent, and the racemes of white blossoms, which are very 

 delicate and graceful, are sessile. The twigs bend readily, as if 

 adapted to form a garland, and of this the name Spirma is said 

 to be significant. The species appears to be S. acutifoUa.=8. 

 hypericifoUa, var. acutifolia of De Candolle. 



At the entrance to Marlefield is a row of fine lime-trees. 

 Marlefield is a fine old place. The house is a long double- 

 winged structure, white-washed, with a superfluity of windows. 

 The tenant said there was room in it to accommodate a regiment 

 of soldiers. It was the property of the Bennets, whose coat of 

 arms is above the door : — " Gules on a chevron between three 

 stars argent, a cross patee gules : Crest, a hand issuing out of a 

 cloud holding forth a cross patee fitched : Motto, Benedictus qui 

 toilet crucem." Marlefield, like Houndwood, is accredited with 

 having blood spots that cannot be effaced on one of the floors ; 

 but there is no tradition of any circumstance by which they could 

 be accounted for, in either case. 



Marlefield was a frequent resort of James Thomson, the poet, 

 during the vacant intervals of study at the University. He was 

 said to be captivated by one of the '' fair Bennetas," as Allan 

 Eamsay playfully styles the daughters of Sir William Bennet ; 



* Hist, of Roxburghshire, iii., p. 332. 



