108 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 



Wedderlik. 



Free access was given to Wedderlie by the proprietor, Mr 

 William Baird, through the intervention of his tenant, Mr John 

 Clay. It is a quaint old resideace, still retaining the style of 

 the age, or rather ages, in which it was built. [Plates XVIII. 

 and XIX. — from photographs by Miss M. Milne Home.] It 

 is well surrounded with trees, and commands a splendid view 

 southwards, towards Eoxburghshire, in the direction of Peniel- 

 heugh. It is a building formed out of an old peel tower of 

 the 14th century, united to a newer and more capacious 

 mansion of the date 1680. It looks as if a branch of the 

 Edgars to whom it belonged had, after a period of straitened 

 means, become enriched by commerce through one of its 

 representatives who supplied better accommodation to his 

 family, accustomed to such comforts as Edinburgh then afforded. 

 To judge from the number of bedrooms, there had evidently' been 

 a large establishment. In the entrance hall was seen a gigantic 

 two-handed sword,*- 5^ feet long, found two feet under moss 

 when casting drains on the farm of Oammerlaws. The Edgars 

 of Wedderlie are said to have descended from the Earls of 

 Dunbar and March. In 1258 Sir Eobert de Polwarth was 

 the owner of Wedderlie ; and his grant of three hundred acres 

 of the territory of Wedderlie to the monks of Kelso is witnessed 

 by Sir Patrick Edgar. In the next generation Sir Richard 

 Edgar, who is the assumed son of Sir Patrick, appears as 

 the first Edgar of Wedderlie. It continued in the family until 

 it was sold in 1733, by John Edgar, the then laird, to Lord 

 Blantyre. In 1684 John Edgar of Wedderlie sat in Parliament 

 for Berwickshire, Edward Edgar for Edinburgh in 1640, and 

 Alexander Edgar for Haddington, 1696-1707. A story is told 

 of the departure of the Edgars from their ancient inheritance. 

 The family were in straitened circumstances and obliged to 

 sell their estates ; and in the words of the narrator, " the 

 auld laird and leddy drove out in their carriage and four 

 horses at mid-day : but the young laird was broken-hearted 

 at the thoet o' leaving the auld place, and he waited till the 

 darkening ; for he said the sun should na shine when he left 

 his hame," and "it was a dark nicht when the last Edgar 



* See Proceedings, Vol. xi., p. 169. 



