176 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1897 



subsequently a possession of the Douglas family of Garvald and 

 Stoneypath Tower. The latter is built on a steep cliflP on the 

 opposite side of the Papana Water in Whittingehame parish. 

 It is a strong square tower of great architectural and antiquarian 

 interest, once a possession of the Lyles, one of whom is men- 

 tioned by Blind Harry as being of service as a guide to 

 Wallace in 1297. An engraving of the tower from a picture by 

 Thomson of Duddingstone is to be found in Scott's Border 

 Antiquities. 



Time allowed us only a peep at the parish church from the 

 village street. The large house near the bridge over the 

 Papana which we here cross was built by Dr Charles Whitelaw, 

 a famous London practitioner, on the site of his father's cottage. 

 The Doctor maintained that the consumption of buttercups by cows 

 affected their milk, and had an unhealthy effect on people who 

 drank it, an idea deduced from the facts that buttercups grew 

 iu luxuriance on the bank of Papana, and that ulcerated legs 

 were frequent among the inhabitants. The impetuous Papana 

 rises near the junction of the Mayshiel and Longformacus road, 

 and flowing through Snawdon Wood, and keeping by the E. of 

 Saawdon farm, and west of the large camp at Garvald Mains 

 where it is joined by the Donolly Burn, is atigmented below the 

 village by the Thorler or Nunraw Burn, whose closer acquaintance 

 we made towards the end of our journey. After crossing the 

 bridge a steep climb brought us from the small farm of Africa 

 to the handsome red sandstone entrance gates of Nunraw House, 

 anciently a fortified nunnery belonging to the Abbey of Hadding- 

 ton. At the Reformation it passed into the possession of a 

 branch of the family of Hay, whose it remained till 1865. 

 This charming estate is now the property of Mr Walter Wingate 

 G-ray. During a restoration of the building undertaken by the 

 last Hay proprietor, a painted mediaeval roof of great anti- 

 quarian interest was found under the lath and plaster of the ceiling 

 of the drawing room. This roof was entirely covered with an 

 endless variety of well-drawn figures, brilliant and fresh in their 

 colouring A detailed description of the various panels is given 

 in Mr D. Croal's Sketches of East Lothian. A. glimpse of the 

 House was obtained when near Castle Moffat through the thick 

 screen of foliage, which here was already showing the first effects 

 of autumn. This is a modern farm steading rebuilt with 

 crenelated parapets to its gable, and occupying the site of a pre- 

 viously fortified place, and a hill fort of a still more remote period. 



