190 Elwyndale and its Three Towers. By J. Freer. 



from side to side alternately, so that the road which leads up the 

 glen, has within the half-mile no fewer than seven Bridges, 

 justifying to a certain extent Sir Walter Scott's somewhat far 

 fetched comparison, where he says, "it is thrown off from side 

 to side alternately like a Billiard ball repelled by the sides of the 

 table on which it has been played." Above the uppermost of 

 these haughs the Glen goes by the name of The Fairy Dean. 

 Here on one of the banks in stiff clay are found Stones known 

 as " Fairy Stones," shaped like buttons, cups, saucers, cradles, 

 etc. It is difficult to account for these stones, and people have 

 found it convenient to call them " Fairy Stones." They are not 

 so plentiful as they were at one time, but after heavy rains 

 which wash away the clay into the stream, they are still found 

 in small numbers. 



In the lower part of its course the Elwyn flows through the 

 Pavilion Estate. Id the old Pre-Reformation times, and till the 

 beginning of the present century, a village called Westhouses 

 occupied the ground westward from Pavilion House. The 

 present Gardener's house was formerly an inn, where the coaches 

 running between Newcastle and Edinburgh used to halt for 

 refreshment. N.W. from the inn (a two storied building now 

 reduced to one story) stood the tower of the Ormistons, in old 

 times the principal family in this district, a branch of the 

 Ormistons of Ormiston, in the Lothians. In the time of Queen 

 Mary, they lost Westhouses, the then owner having followed his 

 brother, the Laird of Ormiston, who took up arms to fight under 

 Bothwell. For this Ormiston lost Westhouses, which was 

 forfeited, and given to an adherent of the Pegent Murray, but 

 the new owner found it impossible to evict the wife of Ormiston, 

 who resolutely held possession of the tower. From this fact it 

 seems very probable that this lady — Catherine Nisbit — was 

 proprietrix of Westhouses, and that John Ormiston acquired the 

 property through his marriage with her. Shortly after, the 

 forfeiture was cancelled and Ormiston restored to full possession. 

 Langlee on the west of the Elwyn belonged to the Monks of 

 Melrose, but in the latter days of James V. they were required 

 to give up possession of the estate to one of the Pringles, who 

 had acquired the favour of James by capturing a Douglas, one 

 of the adherents of Angus. From the Pringles, Langlee seems 

 to have passed into the hands of the Oairacrosses, long a 

 prominent family in the district. 



