Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy, 485 



first Earl of Traquair, who was Treasurer of Scotland in the time of Charles 

 the First. 



The small porch, which rather looks as it were an addition, and prohably is 

 such, protects a fine iron-studded door, with a graceful ornamental knocker. 

 It is perhaps the oddest of all the anecdotes about Sir Walter Scott, that, as 

 the housekeeper was accustomed to relate, he used to regret that he could not 

 get this knocker for Abbotsford, because, as he said, Montrose's hand had 

 been on it. There is no doubt Montrose was at Traquair after the battle of 

 Philiphaugh, but the date on the knocker, in letters four inches long, is 1705, 

 just sixty years later. It shows what an overpowering faculty Sir Walter's 

 imagination was, for he is quite reliable as to facts where there was nothing 

 to stimulate it. A very similar circumstance is mentioned in the Statistical 

 Account of Yarrow. Whether the moor called Annan's Treat (really no doubt 

 Annan Street, the Annandale road) was a burial ground or a battle field, it 

 was formerly scattered over with some 25 or 30 cairns, among which stood 

 two upright stones. When the cairns were destroyed, while Sir Walter was 

 living in the parish, at Ashiesteel, he began to connect the stones which were 

 left, with the authentic duel of the ' Dowie Dens of Yarrow,' in which two 

 gentlemen of the name of Scott, brothers-in-law, I think, kiUed each other ; 

 and this though it was on record that the duel had been fought at Dewchar, 

 some two miles lower down the valley. 



It is almost certain Montrose must have been at Traquair before, as he and 

 Lord Traquair had married sisters ; but it ehould be observed that the Minch- 

 moor road by which he and his immediate followers came o£E from Philip- 

 haugh, was the high-road of the country, the direct line from Edinburgh to 

 Selkirk and Hawick. It was used for marching the infantry regiments of the 

 Edinburgh garrison by, when they were changed, at least till the time of 

 railways. 



The two one -story wings of Traquair house, are without date, but some of 

 the outbuildings have the date 1745, and these seem to be of the same period. 

 That on the south side was latterly inhabited by the late Lady Louisa Stuart, 

 and indeed her brother Lord Traquair, or, as she called him to the last, 

 ' Linton '—his title when his father was alive— lived chiefly in these rooms too. 

 The north wing I think is the stables belonging to the house. On this side 

 there is rather a picturesque pond, with old trees about it. I heard a story 

 lately that this was the old bed of the Tweed, of which the course had been 

 turned ; no doubt this is true, geologically, for there is nothing but haugh- 

 land between ; but not probably since Traquair house was built. The pond 

 Beems to be a piece of ornamental water of the last century. The masonry 

 terraces on the east of the house are curious, for tiU the father of the late Lord 

 Traquair made the two flights of steps, there was no access to the house this 

 way ; in fact they were a means of being in the open air in a fortified place. 

 — Some of the old gean trees {Prunus avium) have been cut down which, net- 

 ted with enormous nets and with a man sitting up all night to watch them, 

 used to be a particular hobby of the late Lord Traquair. They bore very 

 large crops of the native black fruit. [Charles, 8th Earl of Traquair, died in 

 1861]. 



Before leaving Traquair, it may be remarked, that Lady Louisa Stuart, 

 who up to her hundreth year, was keenly interested in all that went on in the 



