202 Eluyndale and its Three Toiuers. By J. Freer. 



of rhomboidal shape is an exact repetition of the somewhat 

 singular enclosure behiad Bow Castle in Stow Parish, where 

 excavations recently made have established the fact that Bow 

 Castle, so called, is one of the old Pictish Brochs. The dykes 

 on the farms in the neighbourhood have used up whatever stones 

 were ever built up behind the Ohatto Crags, so that nothing but 

 conjecture remains to conjure up a Broch on what would, 

 however, be a very suitable position for such an erection. It 

 was among these crags the Thorn Tree and the Well are 

 supposed to be situated, where in the Monastery, Halbert 

 Glendinning met the White Lady of Avenel. However, another 

 Lady's Well is found further up the dale on the W. slope of 

 Colmsliehill. 



Though old British camps are plentiful along the heights on 

 the western banks of the Leader, and are also found on the 

 heights along the Gala, there seem to be absolutely none in 

 Elwyndale. On the farm of Easter Housebyres, there is indeed 

 an enclosure of fully half an acre, protected by an earthen dyke, 

 in the style of the British camps. But this is most probably the 

 steading of some ancient Anglo-Saxon Colonist, who defended 

 his homestead by an earthen dyke, surmounted by a strong 

 wooden stockade, inside of which he might rest in security. 

 Another enclosure, similarly defended, may be traced on the farm 

 of Wester Housebyres, and an ancient description of the 

 boundaries of Gattouside mentions the " Scalbed-raburgh " 

 immediately above the Eaburn or Blakeburn, a tiny tributary of 

 Elwyn ; but as not a stone is left of the " Scalbed-raburgh," and 

 the ground where it stood has long been under the plough, 

 conjecture as to its nature and purpose is valueless. The 

 explanation of the absence of British camps in Elwyndale, is 

 perhaps to be found in the fact that the camps by the Leader 

 must have formed a sufficient defence for Elwyndale, so long as 

 the Britons were able to hold these, and that to enable them to 

 do so, the British population must have been massed in or near 

 the Leader Camps, while Elwyndale would be pastured by their 

 flocks and herds. The Gala water camps would form the second 

 line of defence which remained to the Britons, until they were 

 defeated and driven from the district so completely, that Melrose, 

 Elwyn, and perhaps Clackmae are the only names in the whole 

 district, that tell of occupation by the Britons. 



Milne, in his History of Melrose, says : " about half-a-mile from 



