196 THE HEADS OF BOWMONT WATER 



There is a detached circle 30 feet in diameter inside the angle 

 of the plantation, and at a short distance from the main 

 enclosure. 



No. 27. Track of the same type as others described, runs 

 straight up the face of Swindon Hill, and leaves Bowmont 

 at a point where there is now a precipitous rock. Either 

 the bed of the river has shifted or there was a bridge here. 

 No trace of connecting line visible on the side next Sourhope ; the 

 other end runs to Swindon Hill in a straight line, till a spring is 

 reached, which it curves round and then disappears. Probably 

 it was a local track to the hill pastures. 



This exhausts the list of forts and enclosures in the area, 

 so far as known to me at present ; and the extent of the list 

 gives proof that there was anciently a very considerable 

 population of Celtic extraction. When the Eomans withdrew, 

 and the Saxon tribes came welling up over the lower parts of 

 Northumberland and Berwickshire, the native tribes drew 

 together and were included in the kingdom of Strathclyde, 

 which extended at first to beyond Wooler, on both sides of 

 the Cheviot range. They had been partly Christianized 

 during the Roman occupation. It is of interest, as showing 

 the connection of these glens with Strathclyde and its 

 ecclesiastical system, to find a St. Mungo's Well far down 

 Coquetdale, below Holystone village. The continuance of 

 the customs of clanship, all along the Border hills on both 

 sides, indicates, that though the rule, and after a while the 

 tongue became Saxon, the blood remained Celtic. 



The historical notices of the district of which Mow was the 

 centre, are interesting if few. When David I. returned 

 from England, early in the twelfth century, amongst other 

 Normans, he brought with him Walter, who became the first 

 Stewart of Scotland. To provide him with a footing amongst the 

 nobles of the country, he married the Lady Eschena of 

 Molle, and from this marriage descended Robert the Stewart, who 

 became King of Scotland in 1371. The Lady Eschena, on the 

 death of her first husband Walter, was again married ; and the 

 estates of Molle seem to have gone to the offspring of this 

 second marriage, who appear to have been persons of a 

 generous disposition. The Charters of Kelso and Melrose 

 Abbeys both attest this. Within a few generations the land 



