186 Report of Meetings for 1888. By J. Hardy. 



which came down " red, roaring, rough," swollen by the copious 

 rain-fall of the preceding evening which had descended near the 

 sources of the stream, tinging the Teviot all the distance to its 

 junction with the Tweed, where the two rivers flowed in separate 

 colours even helow Kelso Bridge. Viewed from the public road 

 the back of Lanton Hill behind Black Hall is still clad in bog 

 and fern. Tufts of blooming Broom appear near the Rule. 

 Ruberslaw was green with bracken growths. Its bulk appears 

 greatly dwindled when looked at end-ways on, near at hand. A 

 strip of planting on it was pointed out, said to be earlier in the 

 season full of flowering Fox-glove ; which must form a splendid 

 line of colouring. Spittal, the north- east corner of Cavers 

 Parish, was passed beyond the Rule. Little is known of its 

 history. Jeffrey (Hist, of Roxburghshire, Vol. iv., p. 340) says, 

 " On the N.E. point of the barony (of Cavers) stood an hospital 

 or asylum for pilgrims, and the deceased and poor. There are 

 now no remains of it. The patronage of the hospital was in 

 Douglas of Cavers." Mr Walter Deans writes : " I once visited 

 the Spittal Kirkyard. The gateway is still erect ; and enclosed 

 by an old dyke, there are several tombstones standing, and some 

 lying flat. There are no vestiges of the old chapel. Some of 

 the inscriptions on the stones bear the names of Hunyan or 

 Bungie, which is the common pronunciation of the name here. 

 I have forgotten what the others are.'' 



After crossing the Rule, the party proceeded through the 

 pretty village of Denholm, where another carriage with members 

 from Hawick waited, and they being familiar with the district, 

 took precedence as guides. Leyden's house attracted notice 

 in passing. There are several new houses either in the village 

 or within its precincts, indicating that the place is thriving. 



The beautiful grounds of Minto House, with the magnificent 

 trees, were greatly admired. Minto House is a stately and 

 spacious mansion of white sandstone, finished in 1814, and 

 placed on the foundations of an older house and tower near the 

 brink of a deep glen through which a rivulet flows, across which 

 an embankment being carried, a fine tree-shaded pond has been 

 the happy result. 



The Countess of Minto has preserved for us a pleasing contrast 

 between the Minto of 1774 and that of the present day. 



"The Minto of those days was not the Minto of these. The 

 sheet of water which now reflects laburnums and rhododendrons 



