Death of De la Beaute. By George Muirhead. Ill 



11. To Castle Hume they've ta'en the head, 



And fix't it on the wall, 

 Where it remained many a day 

 Till it in pieces fell. 



12. Sir De la Beautie's headless corpse 



They put into a grave, 

 On Broomhouse banks, without a mass 

 Or prayer his soul to save ! "* 



Dr George Henderson of Ohirnside, in a MS. volume entitled 

 " Excursions in Berwickshire," written about the time when the 

 Railway from Reston to Duns was made, states that "the morass 

 in which D'Arcy was bogged and cdam more than 300 years ago, 

 is now all drained and cultivated. This was effected about 1810, 

 and the public road from Duns to Broomhouse made through it." 

 He adds ' ' the stone which was placed on his grave will now be 

 sought for in vain." 



In the summer of 1880, while on occasional visits to my friend 

 Mr Clapham, at Broomhouse, I made some enquiries regarding 

 De la Beaute's grave, and found that there was a field on the 

 Farm of Swallowdean, called the " De la Bate," but I could get 

 no information as to the exact site of the grave, although I 

 carefully examined the ground in the " De la Bate " field and its 

 vicinity, and made numerons enquiries amongst old residenters 

 in the neighbourhood. An old man who lived at Ladywell told 

 me that he remembered of a cairn of stones having been removed 

 from the "De la Bate " field, many years ago, by a person who 

 had contracted to supply stones for repairing the parish roads. 



Dr Stuart of Chirnside, to whom I mentioned the subject 

 of my enquiry, has told me that he has some recollection 

 of seeing the oairn referred to, shortly after he came to reside in 

 the county, in 1848. 



In 1886, 1 had some correspondence with Captain Logan Home, 



* The Editor of the " Scottish Journal of Topography" says in a 

 note at p. 256, vol. ii. — "The correspondent to whom we are indebted 

 for this interesting relic, printed in the Journal of Gth May last, informs us 

 that the verses were taken from the recital of William Gillies, Skinner in 

 Dunse, about fifty years ago. Gillies was nearly eighty when he died. 

 He had the verses from his grandfather." [Mr Charles Watson, Duns, 

 writes to me : " Duns, 15th Nov. 1888 : My Dear Sir, — I copied the above 

 ballad from a MS. which belonged to my father, and sent it to the Journal 

 along with a number of other papers. Yours truly — Charles Watson."] 



