48 REPORT OP THE MEETINGS FOR 1899 



which he was responsible under forfeiture of body, lands, 

 goods, and chattels. It is highly significant that at this 

 very time Wallace had returned from France, and that there 

 is evidence of the Scots hero being in the south of Scotland. 

 In 1306, the year after Wallace's betrayal and execution, 

 Aylmer de "Valence, afterwards Earl of Pembroke, got a gift 

 of Selkirk Castle with the forest lands ; and four years later 

 we fiad the English king staying several days at the Castle, 

 busy with the subjugation of his new and unwilling subjects. 

 After Bannockburn the Castle passed, with the ofl&ce of 

 Constable of Selkirk, into the hands of Turnbull of Philip- 

 haugh, a stout soldier of Eobert the Bruce. From them 

 it passed to their kinsmen, the Murrays, and finally into 

 the possession of burgess families of Selkirk, under the 

 name of "The Auld Peel." The street which led up to 

 it from the Kirk Wynd used to be called the Peel Grait, 

 until certain unreflecting authorities had it Englished into 

 Castle Street. 



Haining is not an uncommon name in Scotland, Acts having 

 been passed from 1535 to 1617 ordering the formation, or 

 prohibiting the destruction, of plantations and haynings. 

 The name of this estate occurs, however, at a much earlier 

 period, and there is room for believing that it may have 

 been the "hanit part" of the ancient forest referred to in 

 the Forest Laws of William the Lion. The new part of 

 the present house was built about 100 years ago of the 

 stone of the district ; but one of the Pringle lairds, who 

 had been military attache abroad, brought home an Italian 

 architect who faced the front and back with freestone, and 

 added many features of Italian architecture. Further on we 

 shall see a very elegant span over a burn, still known 

 as the Italian bridge. As regards the loch, now so much 

 discoloured, a singular fact, which may have some con- 

 nection with the discolouration, is that in 1661 the Mayor 

 of Berwick raised an action against the Laird of Haining 



