832 Former Lines of Road about Ashiesteel. 



years ago, between Gorebridge and Borthwick, in Midlothian, 

 a mile or two from each, may have been a roadside cross 

 on the old Gala Water or Selkirk road, near the point where 

 it turned up into Middleton Moor, on the way south, to avoid 

 the deep valley in which Crichton and Borthwick stand. The 

 shaft was found built into a dyke, so it is not known 

 where it was originally found. It is sculptured with rude 

 emblematical animals of the well known Perthshire and 

 Forfarshire type. I have no knowledge of its history 

 otherwise, but it is clearly given by Dr Joseph Anderson 

 in his paper on the subject, in the Pro. Soc. Ant., Scot. 

 Notwithstanding which, it is stated in a catalogue of carved 

 stones, in the same Proceedings, that the stone found near 

 Gorebridge is now at Crookston ; and in yet another part 

 of them, that the remains of a cross, now in the Museum, 

 were found at Borthwick. 



In fact it is not generally understood that portions of two 

 crosses, of very diii'erent workmanship, have been found 

 within about two miles of each other ; the first about twenty- 

 fi.ve years ago, when the church of Borthwick was re-built 

 by the munificence of a native of the parish ; the other, as 

 said before, in the fields between Borthwick and Gorebridge, 

 about five years ago. The fragments found at Borthwick, 

 three small pieces with interlaced work in high relief, are 

 at Crookston, the residence of the proprietor of Borthwick, 

 at some distance, and are not likely to be exposed to the 

 doubtful advantages of a Museum. These may possibly be 

 the remains of the very cross said, by Joceline, to be the 

 miraculous work of St. Kentigern, and are in all probability 

 those of the St. Mungo's cross known to Sir David Lyndsaye. 

 Note. — Mr Pringle of Yair is very familiar with the story 

 of the fairies being seen, but it has been considerably 

 altered in the telling. It was not Jenny Spence, the old 

 hen-wife, but Jenny Rodgers, the wife of the old coachman, 

 who had seen them ; and though it is likely she may have 

 been somewhat the younger woman of the two, the supposed 

 occurrence happened long before the time it was told of, 

 and must have been far back in the century, for it was not 

 at Yair, but at Ashiesteel they were seen, and she was the 

 daughter of Will Hadden, a former factotum there. Further, 

 Mr Pringle is not positively certain whether it was herself, 



