82 On Eclin's Hall, by John TurnbuU. 



God Terminus, but tlie form and manner of building is an invin- 

 cible argument of the contrary. Others will have it to be a 

 Temple for Druid Worship, but they ought to reflect that the 

 Druids as well as the magi had no temples. It seems to me 

 very probable that the Scots kept constantly an army of observa- 

 tion on the Lammermoor hills to be ready to defend the borders, 

 if they were invaded from England by land, or by a foreign fleet 

 from the Frith of Forth. As soon as the signals were lighted 

 up along Tweedside or along the Forth this army would march 

 down to their relief." This he thought might have been one of 

 their positions. The next mention is in Sir John Sinclair's 

 Statistical Account of the Parish of Dunse, in 1792, vol. iv., p. 

 389. It is there stated that the building is " by some called 

 Wooden's Hall, but commonly called Edin's or Edwin's Hall." 

 The writer says, " It is supposed to have been a British building, 

 and afterwards used as a military station. What the original 

 name was we have no tradition of, but in after times it has gone 

 by the name of Edin's or Edwin's Hall," so called from the king 

 of Northumberland, who is supposed to have " taken possession 

 of it for a military station for an army of observation, as the 

 Danes were frequently invading Scotland both by sea and land." 

 Next in point of date is Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. ii., p. 211, 

 where the description is almost the same as that in the Scots 

 Magazine (to which reference is made) but not so correct ; for it 

 misinterprets the description of the entrances, and applies it to 

 the building of Edin's Hall, whereas the description in the Scots 

 Magazine was of the entrances to the Camp or enclosure in 

 which Edin's Hall is situated. The New Statistical Account of 

 the Parish of Dunse in 1845, vol. ii., p. 253, contains a short 

 account, and more accurate than any of its predecessors ; but 

 the author of it afterwards explained that it was written 

 hurriedly from memory and the testimony of others, without 

 himself verifying the description on the spot at the time (Ber- 

 wickshire Nat. Club's Proc, vol. iii., p. 9, foot-note). The late 

 Mr Turnbull, of Abbey St. Bathans, contributed a paper to the 

 Proceedings of our Club, in 1850, which contained a fuller 

 account than any that had then appeared, and proceeded upon 

 measurements so far as the remains then admitted of them. He 

 also had the use of a MS. account, written by the late Mr John 

 Bldckadder of Blanerne East Side, a most accurate observer and 



