362 Report of Meetings for 188G. By J. Hardy. 



Neidpath Castle, looking up the Tweed. 



This ancient fortress belonged originally to the Frasers. By 

 marriage with a daughter of Sir Simon Fraser, it came into the 

 possession of the Hays of Locherworth and Yester, one of whom 

 built the portion of the castle which is now standing. The 

 family were some hundred of years ago (1686), obliged to sell 

 the castle and estates to the Duke of Queensberry, whose 

 descendants, the Earls of March, held them for some generations. 

 They now belong to the Earls of Wemyss, the March family 

 having become extinct on the death of the last Duke of Queens- 

 berry, who before he died committed such havoc among the fine 

 old trees which surrounded the castle. And yet at the present 

 so familiar has its naked aspect become, that few lament — 



" The wrongs which nature scarcely seems to heed : 

 For sheltered places, bosoms, nooks, and bays. 

 And the pure mountains and the gentle Tweed. 

 And the green silent pastures, yet remain." 



By judicious planting the crags could readily be replenished 

 with trees and shrubs. There is more reason to regret the ruin 

 of the formal terraced gardens, for which the site is especially 

 adapted, and which formed so appropriate an adjunct to an old 

 grim fortress such as this. In Pennicuik's time there were here 



