12 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 



liouse, Smailcleughfoot was reached, where lived the famous 

 Eingan Oliver. Eingan was a man of immense strength, and is 

 credited with having performed wonderful feats in his day. He 

 fought with the Covenanters at Both well Bridge, at Queensf erry, 

 and was present at the battle of Killiecrankie. His sword, a 

 large Andrea Ferrara, with double edge, is now in possession of 

 Mr Veitch of Inchbonny. After a drive of rather more than 

 four miles from the burgh, the party passed Old Jedward, where 

 Bishop Ecgred of Lindisfarne built a village and church in the 

 early part of the ninth century. The foundations of the Church 

 can still be traced in the old burying-ground, where a few 

 ancient stones are yet remaining. After getting as far as Doves- 

 ford the party left the valley of the Jed, and drove by way of 

 Falla to Swinside Hall, on the Oxnam. The character of the 

 scenery was now altogether changed. Instead of finely wooded 

 bants, little was now seen but a series of hills, smooth and green, 

 and gracefully curved in their outline, diminishing in height as 

 they recede from the giant heights of the Cheviot range." 



I will now take up the narrative. The oak woods of Fernie- 

 herst were still brown and leafless, and even the light-hued 

 birch was almost irresponsive to the near approach of June ; and 

 we looked in vain for a blooming hawthorn spray, the season 

 being late. 



Professor Geikie is of opinion that the ancient course of the 

 Jed proceeded across by Mossburnford to the Oxnam valley. 

 " A glance at the hollow that extends, from Mossburnford on the 

 Jed to Hardenpeel on the Oxnam, is enough to convince one 

 that in pre-glacial and probably in early post-glacial times also 

 a considerable stream has flowed from what is now the vale of 

 the Jed into the valley of the Oxnam." {Good Words, 1876, p. 

 552.) Above Mossburnford between it and Scraesburgh Lake 

 stood Fendy Hall, whose tenants are still recollected as "the 

 Peat Lairds of Fendy Hall." They were the descendants of the 

 kindly tenants of the Abbey of Jedburgh, and occupied nine or 

 ten cottages, " obtaining their chief subsistence by cutting peats 

 in the fen or moss, and conveying them to Jedburgh and other 

 places for sale." (Jeffrey's Hist. Eox. ii., p. 290.) 



Crossing the Jed by the old bridge at Dovesf ord, the carriages 

 ascended a steep bank, with Eichard's Cleugh and its wood on 

 the left, in which the scattered budding hawthorn bushes and 



