56 REPORTS OF MEETINGS FOR 1909 



a like character it must have been erected three centuries 

 ago. Lessuden House bore a general resemblance to it, both 

 externally and internally, but was richer in the possession of 

 a baronial appearance. The ground floor walls terminated in 

 an arched roof supporting the dining-room ; and that arched 

 apartment with walls of about 5 feet in thickness communicated 

 with the upper chamber through an opening of about 15 inches 

 square. Cessford Castle and Smailholm Tower were said to be 

 similarly distinguished. The North wall had contained a 

 winding stair from the upper apai'tments to some point below, 

 which had of late years been built up. How ordinary access 

 to the living rooms was effected it was difficult to explain, the 

 aforesaid winding stair being so steep and narrow as to lead 

 to the conjectm-e that it had been employed solely as a means 

 of escape or concealment. The Western portion facing South 

 was added by the Baron about 1780. The farm covered an 

 area of 1,700 acres; and in 1844, when it was advertised 

 to let, it was stated that only 740 acres were in rotation, 

 thus leaving nearly 1,000 acres of unreclaimed land. Since 

 then the wliole had been placed under cultivation, and many 

 acres of new plantations had been laid out, affording valuable 

 shelter ; but in spite of the large sum expended on fencing 

 and draining and the like, the fact remained that the annual 

 rental of the farm to-day ranked lower than that yielded sixty 

 years ago, when more than half of the land was little else 

 than a wilderness. A plantation of superior Scots Fir on 

 indifferent soil at the West side of the estate went to prove 

 the assertion often made, that this particular species did best 

 on comparatively poor land. 



Availing themselves of the kindness of the tenant, Mr Peter 

 MacLaren, members entered the house and had the advantage 

 of Mr Rutherfurd's guidance in their examination of its peculiar 

 features, returning thereafter along a portion of the approach, 

 over which a long row of umbrageous Limes formed a canopy, 

 to the entrance gate, where they re-entered the carriages and 

 continued their journey to Monteviot. In the course of it 

 they skirted the base of Penielheugh, and through the helpful 

 offices of Mr John Caverhill, Jedneuk, approached the cricket 

 pavilion within the grounds of Monteviot by the new carriage 



