250 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1902 



of the Stobo hedges, and hornbeam is another. An old beech 

 tree, called by children the " Queen of Stobo," we saw on 

 the right side of the road, bound together by iron chains 

 to support its aged trunk and limbs. We passed, too, the 

 apex of Sheriff Muir, where wapenshaws used to be held 

 so late as the end of the 18th century; and on our right 

 hand was Easter Happrew, the birth place of David Ritchie, 

 the Black Dwarf of Sir Walter Scott's story, who established 

 himself in a stone-built cabin on a wild moorland within 

 the lands of the late Sir James Naesmith. 



We visited the Norman Church of Stobo, dating from 1175. 

 It has three Norman-arohed doors, two of which have been 

 filled up. The tower was perhaps built at the time of the 

 Reformation by Priest Colquhoun, who outwardly conformed 

 with Reformation principles, but secretly hid his friends of 

 the old religion in the upper storey of the tower. Outside 

 the door is an iron ring for scolding wives ; the door posts 

 (of sandstone) are scored and worn, as though by children 

 sharpening their knives or parishioners their arrows. 



There are two fine Norman windows on the north side 

 of the chancel : the window on the south side consists of a 

 single slab of stone, perforated with four narrow light openings, 

 and above these some smaller ones of lozenge shape, giving 

 the complete tracery without a single jointing in the stone. 

 There is here the tomb of a soLlier — a highlander — who 

 died returning from "the '45," an old stone with the figure 

 of a man in bonnet, kilt, and large musket. The highland 

 army passed this way on tlieir return. 



Driving on past Stobo Castle, through the policy and woods, 

 we open out a view of Drummelzier Haugh, evidently the 

 site of an ancient lake. We have on the left of the road, 

 coming down to the Tweed, an altar stone placed where 

 Kentigern and Merlin met. In the distance is Tintock Tap, 

 a bleak hill summit, of which the rhyme says: — 



" Be yoar lassie ne'er so black. 



Gin she hae the name o' siller, 

 Set her ap on Tintock Tap, 

 The win(i will bUw s^. laddie till her," 



