54 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1896 



one of the narrow glens, when a gust of wind lifted up their 

 hodden-grey cloaks, and showed their militarj' garb beneath. 

 They had been watched and were now overtaken and shot. 

 Miss Darling told me that tradition had always pointed to an 

 old thorn bush at the opening of the cleugh as the spot where 

 they were buried. At her instigation, the ground was dug up 

 there, and among some mouldering bones were found a few 

 sorely decayed military buttons with a coin of the time of 

 Charles I." Unfortunately the exact spot where the remains 

 were unearthed has passed out of memory. Mr Darling, the 

 present tenant of Priestlaw, handed to Dr Hardy a metal 

 button, and a coin said to have been found in the grave, and 

 also several coins picked up in the neighbourhood, one of them 

 a very beautiful silver piece of Francis and Mary, found 

 near the Nun's Walls, on Horseupcleugh. The button has 

 been submitted to Dr Joseph Anderson of the Society of 

 Antiquaries of Scotland, who says: — "lam satisfied that it 

 bears a front face crowned and with long hair, and that the 

 letters on either side are ' G. E.,' so that it is in all probability 

 a Royalist button, rude as it seems." This would appear to 

 show either that the soldiers were disguised as Eoyalists at the 

 time of their capture, or that they had been wrapped in some 

 portion of the uniform of their captors when buried. 



MILLKNOWE AND GAMELSHIEL. 



While the foregoing was the route taken by the main party, 

 Dr Hardy went over the Hungry Snout by Millknowe, and 

 joined the others at Fasney Bridge, a little beyond Priestlaw. 

 Millknowe had interesting associations for Dr Hardy, as having 

 been a favourite resort in his younger years of his friend 

 Principal Cairns, who frequently spent leisure days there with 

 his relatives, the Darlings of Priestlaw, at that time tenants also 

 of Millknowe. It had been intended to visit the ruins of 

 Gamelshiel on Spartleton, and also Johnscleugh, the source of 

 the Whitadder, Ringside, and Mayshiel. but time did not 

 permit. An interesting legend connected with Gramelshiol 

 Tower, as related by Eohert Chambers in his "Picture of 

 Scotland " may be given as illustrating the folklore of the neigh- 

 bourhood. " The lady of Gramelshiel Castle, a ruined strength 

 situated in a hope or small glen, near the farm of Millknowe, 

 was one evening taking a walk at a little distance below the 



