THE HEADS OF BOWMONT WATER 197 



in the vicinity of Mow was mostly in the possession of these 

 Abbeys. The Charters are curious reading, showing that 

 then there were extensive divisions and subdivisions of land 

 in high-lying districts, which have now, for many generations, 

 been open wastes or pasture lands. Only very few of the 

 places named in the Charters can now be certainly identified. 

 As a friend, born in the district and brought up there, 

 remarked, the attempt to find them is like seeking a map 

 that has been traced in water. Even the site of Mow itself 

 is a matter on which authorities differ, some placing it on the 

 slope between Ellisheugh Hill and Bowmont Water, nearly 

 opposite the site of Mow Kirk. The Ordnance Maps place 

 it on the slope south of Bowmont Water, between the foot 

 of the Hall Burn and Calroust Burn; and the appearance 

 of the ground indicates that this was the site. Mow was a village 

 of some importance down to the Reformation and the Union 

 of the countries. Kelso Abbey had in it 14 cottages, a 

 brew-house, and a malt kiln, from all of which it drew 

 rent. The lairds of Mow were always to the front, in the 

 troubles of the evil time, when the policy and the temper of the 

 Tudors made the life of a landlord on the Scottish side of the 

 Border no sinecure. Many of the inroads made by the 

 English leaders, though entering by the opener parts of the 

 Border line into Scotland, were, in returning to their own 

 country, conducted through the head valleys of Kale and 

 Bowmont ; so that fire and bloodshed were almost the yearly 

 fate of these quiet uplands. At the battle of Ancrum Moor in 

 1545, when both the English leaders fell, one of them, Sir 

 Ralph Euro, was slain by the laird of MoUe. A year thereafter 

 it is of interest to read : — 



"Item, the xxij. of May, the Lord Warden of the Est 

 Marches [William, Lord Euro or Eures] having information 

 that the laird of Mowe [Molle] who slew his son, repaired to 

 ij. towres of his own, upon the head of Bowbente [Bowmont] 

 in Tyvidale, th' one called Mowe, and the other Coleruste, he 

 sent forth the said day at nyght Vc men of the garrisons of the 

 Eestmarches under the leadinge of his son Herry Ewry, and 

 George Bowes, son to Richard Bowes, captain of Norhame, who 

 went to the said towres, and wan, and undermyndet them both 



