134 



Mellerstam and the HnitUcs thereof. — Appendix of Notes. 

 By De, Hardy. 



1. — Whiteside House. 



Whiteside House, the residence of the Haitlies, according: to the 

 tradition of the older inhabitants — one of whom is still alive — stood in 

 the vicinity of the present mansion of Mellerstain, somewhnt on the 

 S.W. of the policy, in a field called Whiteside, woyv subdivided into 

 two sections, Big and Little Whiteside. Whiteside House, it is said 

 stood at the westerly edge of the larger field, and its site is marked, 

 but not named, in the Ordnance Map by a semicircle, while a minute 

 circle near the centre of the field indicates the foundation of another 

 structure, conjectured to have been connected with the Haitlie residence. 

 ''Whytesyde" has disappeared from the modern County Maps, but 

 appears in Timothy Font's (died 1630) map of " Mercia." It is now 

 represented by a vaulted building in ruins ; by the old people, who 

 considered it to be haunted, termed the " Bogle House." It was 

 recollected to have been thatched either with " Bennels," i.e. Bog-reeds, 

 or else with strong rushes. For the present we must be contented 

 with Mr Wm. Macdonald's description of the remains in a letter to 

 •Mr James Wood, Galashiels, dated from Mellerstain Gardens, 23rd 

 October 1894. He says: — "Yesterday I examined the old building, it 

 is of one storey, 18 yards long by 8 yards broad, and 10 feet high. 

 It has an arched roof, which begins at 2 feet from the floor, inside 

 the building. The walls are 4 feet thick at base, and 6 feet thick 

 at 7 feet height from the ground, or at where the arch begins on the 

 outside. It stands in a field called Whiteside, about half a mile 

 north-west of Mellerstain Mill." 



There had been an old mansion near Mellerstain previous to David 

 de Graham's grant of two tofts in Melocstan to the Abbey of Kelso. 

 One of these, of two acres in extent, was situated where the " Old 

 Hall" stood, and the other on the south side of Melocstan. Amable, 

 the mother of the Grahams, had her liferent of them for twelve 

 pence yearly (Chart. Cal., 51.) William de Hatteley had a dwelling 

 house of his own elsewhere. 



2. — Other Haitlie Fossessions in Berwickshire and East Lothian. 



It may be desireable to make a few explanatory observations on 

 some of the other lands, not now readily distinguishable, formerly 

 possessed by the Haitlies in Berwickshire and East Lothian. 



2. — Brigheamschelis. 



This originally belonged to the Dunbar family. " On 30th September 

 1497 the Earl of March had allowance made to him on account of 

 the devastation of the lands of Hirsell, Graden, Letham (Leitholm), 



