NOTES ON SOME EARLSTOUN LOCALITIES 257 



understood, but the idea at any rate of perching a falconry 

 on the top of such a steep inconvenient spot is at least 

 far fetched. 



This knowe, I may add, was many years since cut partly 

 away at the crag end to widen the road to Oowdenknowes 

 and Redpath, and the formation of the kaim was therefore 

 well seen. 



Children were in the habit of climbing up the steep 

 front to dig for earth nuts (Conopodium), which grew in 

 great quantities among the trees with which the kaim was 

 formerly covered. 



It is a well-known and well authenticated story of the 

 broom of the Oowdenknowes having at one time been so 

 high that a man on horseback could ride through it without 

 being seen, but it was always spoken of in Earlstoun in 

 connection with a time long past. I remember, however, 

 that when Dr Home, who sprang from a cadet branch of 

 the old stock, possessed the estate of Oowdenknowes, I was 

 taken there by my father on one of his visits to the family, 

 and in the drawing room Miss Home showed me a specimen 

 of the famous broom, the height of which fully bore out 

 the reputation it had acquired. It stood against a corner 

 of the room, and resembled a salmon rod, but being taller 

 than the high ceiling, the top part was bent round at least 

 2 feet to find a place along the wall. I was very young 

 then, but Miss Home was so anxious to impress upon my 

 mind the truth of the fame of the great height of the broom 

 of the Oowdenknowes, that its appearance remains clear in 

 my memory still. 



Some years ago I accompanied Mr Wood and Mr Tait 

 of Gattonside to the East Moors, Earlstoun, to see " The 

 Black Dyke," which could then be distinctly traced on the 

 farm of Yarlside — a name, by the way, which is believed 

 to be derived from the Earls or Yarls, who were the owners 

 of the lands. After a long examination of this ancient way, 

 as we turned to go homewards, we came unexpectedly on a 

 group of trees, whose old, battered, and weather-worn 

 appearance excited our curiosity, and the more so when 

 we discovered that they were broom trees — not bushes, but 

 trees — of considerable size and thickness, with stunted and 



