REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 91 



caves, Similar to those at Sunlaws, in which they sought a 

 hiding-place in times of threatened danger. 



Upon a stone which we passed on the road to Marlefield 

 is this inscription, which Sir G. Douglas has copied : — 



Here Hobby Hall boldly maintain'd his right, 

 Gain'st reef* plain force armed with lawless might ; 

 For Twenty Pleaghs harnes'd in all their Gear, 

 Could not his valient nobl Heart make Fear, 

 But with his aword he cut the formost Soam 

 In two, Henoe drove both Pleughs and Pleugh-Men home. 



1620. 



Cessford Castle had been arranged as the next point of 

 call, which prior to 1650 was the residence of the Roxburgh 

 family, and had previously been assaulted and taken by Surrey 

 in 1523, and destroyed by Hertford in 1545, and was said 

 to have served later on as a prison for Covenanters ; but 

 time did not permit of a visit to the interesting ruin, and 

 t!ie drive was continued through the village of Morebattle to 

 Linton Church. The Rev. J. F. Leishman and Mrs Leishman 

 received us at the manse, and within the church Mr Leishman, 

 at the request of the Secretary and on behalf of his father, 

 Rev. Dr Leishman, who did not join us until later, gave a 

 short statement regarding the antiquities of Linton. He 

 said : —The castle and barony of Linton first emerged into 

 the clear light of history in the days of William the Lion, 

 when Walter de Somerville bestowed a grant of laud to endow 

 the rectory of Linton. This old race of the Somervilles — now 

 an extinct peerage — played an important part in our early 

 annals. For over two centuries and a half they inhabited 

 the castle hard by, and were buried on this mound so late 

 as 1426. We find Thomas, Lord Somerville, causing "repair 

 the kirk and quier of Linton and the tower." But, by the 

 close of the 15th century, the Somervilles have vanished to 

 their Lanarkshire estates, and Linton is in the hands of the 

 Kers, an offshoot of the Cessford family. For the next two 

 centuries they figure prominently in Border history. In 1502, 

 e.g., we find James Ker acting as surety for a band of Border 



*"Reef" is robbery; the noun corresponding to the verb to reeve. 



