192 Elwyndale and its Three Toiuers. By J. Freer. 



stones are found, and thereafter proceeding through fields in a 

 slanting direction towards Glendearg farm steading. Up to this 

 point the track of the Girthgate has been conjectural only, but 

 its northern course towards Soultra Hill in the Lammermoors is 

 well known through the farms of Glendearg, Colmslie, Hawk- 

 nest, etc., till it leaves the Parish of Melrose at Sellmoor, the 

 highest and most northern part of the parish. Sellmoor is but 

 a thin disguise of Cellmuir, the name of a small chapel placed 

 here in Eoman Catholic times. It may be added that though 

 the line for the Girthgate between Wester Housebyres and 

 Glendearg is conjectural, a zealous antiquarian will have no 

 difficulty in finding parts of an ancient way leading in the 

 direction indicated. The Girthgate, where it still exists, is of 

 the ordinary width of a public road, and connected Melrose 

 Abbey with the other three Scottish Abbeys that had the 

 privilege of girth or sanctuary. The other Girthgate that 

 proceeded down through Lauderdale and Leaderside to Leader- 

 foot, must have led to the ancient Abbey of Old Melrose. 



Eeturning back to the banks of Tweed, we find that a little 

 west from Cobbleheugh was the Salter's Ford, the name of 

 which plainty sets forth its use. Half-a-mile further up Tweed, 

 a little below where Elwyn ends its course, stood the bridge 

 which Sir Walter Scott, in his Novel of the Monastery, makes 

 some of the characters who figure in the tale, use in their 

 journeys from the Abbe}'- to Glendearg. This bridge was said 

 to have been erected by one of the Pringles, perhaps that 

 member of the family who received a grant of Langlee from 

 James V. Certainly the inscription on a stone found on the site 

 of this bridge, and given by Sir W. Scott, does not agree with 

 this theory, but the inscription, it is known, was incorrectly 

 given. This bridge was visited by Gordon, the antiquarian, in 

 the beginning of the 18th century, and described as well as 

 sketched by him in his Iter Septentrionale published in 1726. His 

 description is criticized and contradicted by Milne in his History 

 of Melrose, published twenty years after, but there seems to be 

 no irreconcilable discrepancy between the two. A part of the 

 bridge was to be seen at the beginning of the present century, 

 and people are still to be found in the district who have seen the 

 foundations of the pillars beneath the water, " the landstools " 

 as they call them. Its situation was about 200 yards below the 

 junction of the Elwyn with the Tweed, and almost exactly 



