Report of Meetings for 1879, by James Hardy. 27 



near Earlston, told me, that his father and the grand- 

 father of a gentleman well-known in Hawick and the Borders 

 generally, were servants on the estate of Marlefield about the be- 

 ginning of the century ; the one a shepherd, the other the 

 steward, and that their master, the respected and kindly laird of 

 the estate, gave them each a small farm of 50 acres, at a very 

 small rent ; he was so pleased with the manner in which he had 

 been served by them during a pretty long service. The hundred 

 acres divided between them had been reclaimed from the moor- 

 land, and were divided into equal portions by a dry stone dyke. 

 The old laird took his two honoured servants to the land, after 

 the dyke was finished, and told them each to lift a stone that 

 could again be recognised, and put it into his bonnet. This was 

 done, and the old laird scrambled on to the dyke top and put- 

 ting his hand within the bonnet, took the stones out, and threw 

 one on each side of the dyke, saying as he did so, ' There's yer 

 farms, an' yer leases.' Each therefore got the 50 acres on which 

 his marked stone fell ; and there were no more words than the 

 above, oral or written, about the leases ; and both tenants did 

 well in the small farms." 



Before getting to Cessford Castle, the old seat of the Rox- 

 burghe branch of the Kers, we had to descend into a hollow, 

 where grew some fine-shaped flowering hawthorns, that will soon 

 be overtopped by aspiring plantations of thriving firs. The 

 castle stands on an eminence, not very marked, surrounded by a 

 strong growth of very green grass, an unmistakeable evidence 

 of the frequent presence of reposing flocks ; and by a number of 

 old ash trees. The ruins of the keep, which were inspected with 

 very great interest, are in a good state of preservation on the ex- 

 terior, but all the interior chambers, as well as the vaults are 

 broken down. A fire-place still entire remains, far up the walls, 

 with ornamental stone jambs of red sandstone, and foliaged 

 capitals. There are numerous small dark cells, lighted by arrow 

 slits, in the thickness of the walls. The stone of which the 

 castle is built is mostly of red sandstone, the rubble being trap 

 or porphyry. Several young saplings of ash are rooted on the 

 top of the walls, and will probably hasten its dilapidation ; how- 

 beit for the present they contribute to its picturesqueness. 



The venerable old ash-tree, called the Crow Tree, which stood 

 a few yards from Cessford Castle, and reckoned to be the largest 



