Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 217 



once popularly called), as well as the lines of the Scottish Coven- 

 anters, traceable on the sloping western side of the Doon-hiU. 

 Viewed from Hartside, the highest of the opposite Lammermoors, 

 vestiges of a triple rampart meet the eye, but on the ground 

 these identify themselves with out -crops of rock. This hill-top 

 appears to have been long under cultivation. Looking across to 

 the rising ground on Spott farm, the Dodd or Spott law may 

 possibly represent the " Domilaw above Spot," whereon there 

 was a beacon in 1547. At the western end of the farm of Spott 

 is the Chesters HiU, whereon was situated, but now ploughed 

 over, a vast British settlement containing many acres of space. 

 A gold chain was once picked up within its area attached to the 

 coulter of a plough, which had caught it up. On Spott Moor, 

 about 1297, according to the relation of Blind Harry, who had 

 obtained some local knowledge about this vicinity. Sir William 

 "Wallace and his followers fought a battle with Earl Patrick, and 

 was nearly overpowered by numbers, from which he was only 

 extricated by desperate valour, when the foe retreated. 



The soil on the upper platform is a tenacious clay, like that 

 produced from decayed Silurian slate. One of the fields is called 

 the Teuchits, having been much frequented, before being drained,, 

 by Lapwings. 



Above the village many old elm and ash trees mark the site of 

 the houses, or garden plots, or acres of the old population, which 

 began to decrease with the improvement of agriculture. There 

 are scarcely any cottages left, except those attached to the farm. 

 The manse, the church, the school and school-house may be said 

 to represent the village. In 1730 there were twenty-one farmers 

 in the parish ; in 1791 these were reduced to seven ; and, exclu- 

 sive of sections belonging to farms, whose main bulk lies in 

 other parishes, the number of separate farm-holdings appears at 

 present to be nine. 



Tradition says that the farming people of Spott were much 

 alarmed with the Highland invasion in 1745, which they spoke 

 of as the period " when the 'Black Watch' came through." To 

 prevent their cattle being requisitioned for the supplies of the 

 rebel army, they drove them for concealment to Spott Wood. 

 After the battle of Prestonpans, the rebels carried off a cargo of 

 wine from the laird of Spott' s cellars in Dunbar. 



The Jou^s, once the terror of parochial culprits, are now at- 



