256 NOTES ON SOME EARLSTOUN LOCALITIES 



Earl's coaclies were washed, but as such wheeled vehicles 

 were not then in use the tradition must belong to a later 

 date. 



" The Doocote Knowe " — composed of very fine sand — 

 was entirely levelled when the Berwickshire railway was 

 made, and although the operations of the workmen were 

 carefully watched by many intelligent spectators, nothing 

 of interest was come upon. The land to the north and 

 south of this knowe has been under cultivation for years, 

 and part of it is now occupied by the gasworks and the 

 Board School ; but, with the exception of a stone lintel, 

 which is said to have been dug out of the small field on the 

 north side of the school about 90 years since, and afterwards 

 used in the construction of a house, I have never heard of 

 any traces of buildings having been found there. Nevertheless, 

 the late Mr Currie, sculptor, Darnich, who resided in 

 Earlstoun a number of years, says in a note to Dr J. 

 Murray's "Thomas of Ercildoune " that when the gasworks 

 were built at Earlstoun about 1832, he saw hewn pavement 

 turned up, and large chiselled blocks which had been part 

 of the original walls and foundations of the "Earl's tower." 



A somewhat perplexing statement, however, in connection 

 with this appears in Lord Lindsay's "Lives of the Lindsays," 

 to the effect that "In the early part of the 12th century 

 the country about Earlstoun came into the hands of 

 Cospatrick, Ist Earl of Dunbar. Cospatrick's only residence 

 south of the Lammermoors seems to have been at Lauder." 



The Pleasaunce is the name of two level fields on the 

 south-east side of the burn, and I have been told that 

 some old fruit trees grew there up to a late date. 



The Ha' kaim is a knoll of about 130 yards in length, 

 and stands at its highest part some 60 feet above the level 

 of the burn, which flows through a small meadow at its 

 foot. It is a gravel deposit, formed by the combined action 

 of glacier and iceberg with currents, and called a kaim or 

 combe from its resemblance to a cock's comb. There are 

 many of these kaims in Berwickshire, and this one is 

 distinguished in old documents by the name of "The 

 Halcombe." The transition to Ha' kaim — for this used to 

 be the common pronunciation, not Hawk-kaim — is easily 



