24 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1899 



Bank, aud who is therefore widely familiar with the district, 

 acted as cicerone during the day, being greatly aided in his 

 arrangements by Mr E. H. Dunn and the Secretary. 



The party drove in brakes from the Eed Lion Hotel, by 

 Morriston, to Covsbie Rog and Tower. They then visited 

 the church of Legerwood and the Pickie Moss, the breeding 

 place of Pickmaws (the local name of the Black-headed 

 Gull) on Legerwood farm, and thence drove to Ohapel-on- 

 Leader and Carolside, and afterwards dined in the Eed 

 Lion Hotel, Earlston. 



In the Proceedings of the Club, Earlston itself has been 

 so . often treated at considerable length that very little need 

 here be said regarding its history. The following tradition, 

 however, regarding Thomas the Ehymer, which, it is believed, 

 has never before been printed, may be given. 



On a small, partly wood-covered hill, immediately opposite 

 the railway station, an Earl of March had his "hawk 

 house," and the hill still bears the name of " Hawk Kame," 

 and it would certainly prove an airy, dry, and healthy station 

 for the abode of his lordship's falcons. The Hawk Kame 

 is only some two hundred yards from Ehymer's Tower, the 

 abode of the famous " True Thomas." The tradition bears 

 that the Ehymer occasionally visited the Earl at the Kame, 

 using a foot road that led from the one abode to the other ; 

 and that on this road, on a dark night, he was waylaid 

 and murdered by some one who feared and hated him, and 

 an idea prevailed that he was cunningly buried where he 

 fell. I should mention, in connection with this, that in the 

 earlier half of the present century a sword of the period of 

 Thomas the Ehymer was turned up in close neighbourhood 

 to where the foot road ran. The late worthy Thomas Gray 

 of Earlston, a keen antiquarian, acquired this sword, and 

 his idea was that it had belonged to the Ehymer. The 

 sword is now possessed by a well-known country gentleman, 

 for whom I purchased it, who claims to be of the family 

 of the poet, and who bears his family name, Thomas 

 Learmouth. 



Early in the century badgers were very numerous in the 

 district. The Brock Hill is in the neighbourhood, and there 

 the lovers of badger drawing used to get supplies for their 



