Notes on Branxholme. By W. Eliutt Lockhart. 4G L 



1662,) is on too small a scale to shew the orchards and very 

 pleasant gardens alluded to by Lord Hunsdon in 1570, neither 

 is it as accurate as the Ordnance Survey of the present day ; but 

 it gives an interesting idea of the country, and of the names of 

 the places at the time it was made. It also shews an extended 

 enclosure round Branxholme, within which, no doubt, large 

 numbers of cattle and sheep were kept, and seems to include the 

 whole of the present farm of Branxholm Park, as well as a 

 portion of Branxholm Braes. As shewn in the map, this ground 

 was then pretty thickly wooded; and in the journal of Mr 

 James Grieve, Brauxholm Park — who lived between 1751 and 

 1838, and who must have been a most careful and methodical 

 observer — he records that between 1 75 1 and 67, " the country was 

 dismantled of the wood. I have heard my grandfather say he 

 remembered when a man on horseback could ride from New Mill ' 

 round to Whitehope Mill, 2 Avhen the leaves were out, he could 

 not be seen from any of the neighbouring hills."'' 



In 1767, Mr William Ogilvie of Hartwoodmyres was appointed 

 Chamberlain over the Buccleuch estates, and either then or 

 shortly afterwards came to reside at Branxholme, which, since 

 that time, has been the official residence of the successive 

 Chamberlains. It is probable that the old castle had by that 

 time fallen into more or less decay, and that in modernizing and 

 making it habitable, a considerable part of the old buildings and 

 surroundings were removed, as was so often done at that period. 



There are now no remains of the Courtyard walls ; but Mr 

 Ogilvie of Chesters tells me that when they were enlarging the 

 terrace along the south front, and east of the house in 1837, soon 

 after his father's appointment as Chamberlain, they came upon 

 what seemed an old foundation on the bank at the east end, but 

 did not make further exploration. Mr James Scott, mason at 

 Wilton Dene, who was employed at that time in the alterations, 

 also tells me that when they were digging for drains, or levelling 

 on the north side, they could hardly put in a spade any where 

 without coming on old stones. 



Plate IV,* taken from " Border Anticpiities," shews the 

 house as it was in the early part of the century, looking at it 

 from the south-east. The natural strength of the position is 



1 On Teviot, about 1| mile above Branxholme. 



-' In Borthwick Water, now part of Todshawhaugh farm. 



3 Com. by his grandson, Mr Chas. Grieve, Branxholm Park. 



