REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 85 



fortress, a royal residence, and a centre of strife. A few 

 detached fragments of the outer walls are all that remain of 

 the once powerful stronghold. 



It was intended that the party should walk by the riverside 

 to Roxburgh, and, crossing the bridge there, to glance at 

 the Wallace Tower and the grave of " Edie Ochiltree " in 

 Roxburgh Churchyard.* However, owing to the rain, this 

 had to be abandoned, and they drove direct from Springwood 

 to Sunlaws House, the seat of Major 8cott Ker, who was at 

 this time on active service in South Africa. The tenant, Mr 

 W. Campbell, K.C., and Mrs Campbell, joined the party here, 

 on a visit to the caves in the steep bank of the Teviot close 

 by. Mr R. T. Rae, the estate manager, guided the visitors 

 down the tortuous paths to the river side. Here were 

 two caves, each seven yards long, of apparently artificial 

 excavation, in Teviot bank steep and grand, the feathery 

 foliage of its trees overshadowing the brown foam-fleeked 

 water below ; other smaller inchoate caverns were also seen, 

 about one-third way up the bank. At the mouth of the 

 cavern known as the " Horse Cave," Sir George Douglas 

 said: — "These caves are certainly artificial, it being quite 

 impossible to account for their existence by any geological 

 or other natural cause. The reasons for supposing them to 

 be pre-historic may be resumed as follows : — Diodorus Siculus, 

 an historian of the period of Julius Caesar and Augustus, tells 

 us that the natives of Britain were used to seek refuge from 

 their enemies by concealing themselves in caves. There are 

 caves similar to these caves at Kingscaur, in Yorkshire, which, 

 on being examined, have yielded pre-historic implements and 

 ornaments, on which subject I refer you to a picturesque 

 passage in the 'Making of England,' by the late John 

 Richard Green. So far as I know, the floors of these Sunlaws 

 caves have never been examined systematically. Were they 



* The Rev. David Paul, LL.D., who was unable to attend this meetine, 

 wrote to Sir George Douglas, saying : — " A short time before I left 

 Roxburgh I communicated to Messrs A. & C. Black all the information 

 I could obtain at Roxburgh regarding Edie Ochiltree. They considered 

 it interesting, and promised to insert it in the notes to their next 

 addition of the Antiquary. There is no doubt whatever that he was 

 buried where the stone in Roxburgh Churchyard indicates." 



