Elwyndale and its Three Towers. By J. Freer. 197 



Cairncrosses of " Balmashenar " figure largely in the Privy 

 Council Records as givers of bands or caution in the same way as 

 the Elwyndale Cairncrosses. The last of the Calf bill or Eillslap 

 Cairncrosses, when he parted with the estate, is said to have 

 emigrated to America ; and not very long ago persons bearing 

 the name of Cairncross visited Elwyndale to see the home of 

 their ancestors. The}' spent some time in making enquiries 

 regarding this old family, and searched Melrose Abbey Church- 

 yard for their tombs. None are there. Doubtless the Cairn- 

 crosses found their last resting place in the old churchyard in the 

 Chapel Park of Colmslie, all trace of which has now disappeared. 

 The branch of the family owning Colmslie parted with their 

 estate sometime in the first half of the seventeenth century, and 

 thereafter Colmslie rapidly and repeatedlj' changed owners, till 

 it came into the hands of the Inneses of Stow. It is now 

 possessed by Lady Eeay, whose first husband was Alexander 

 Mitchell of Stow and Carolside, heir-at-law to the Inneses of 

 Stow. Calfhill, or Glendearg to use the more modern name, 

 sometime owned by Mr Borthwick of Crookston, is now in the 

 posssssion of the heirs of James Dalrymple of Langlee, thereby 

 reversing the order of things, when a Cairncross of Calfhill 

 became owner of Langlee more than two centuries ago. 



From the Valuation Eoll of Melrose Parish of 1643, the fol- 

 lowing rowmes are entered as pertaining to James Cairncross: — 

 AUanshaws - - £400 



Wouplaw - - 293 6 8 



Colmslie and Mill - - 824 19 2 



Newtown - - 112 



£1630 5 10 

 Calfhill and Colmslie of course were the property of the 

 Melrose Monks, but by grant or in some other way not known, 

 they came into the hands of the Cairncrosses. Different 

 branches of the family held possession of Calfhill and Colmslie, 

 another branch owned Luggate, or Ludgate as the old writs 

 sometimes termed it, in the Parish of Stow.* The name — 

 Cairncrosses' Tower — was given to an old ruin at the east end of 

 the village of Eedpath, in the parish of Earlston. Eedpath, it 



* Two persons bearing this name are mentioned in the Gattonside 

 Charter of 1590 given by James Douglas, Commendator of Melrose Abbey. 



