REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1904 131 



to whose possessor in 1507 was granted leave to build a 

 stronghold against the attacks of marauders, which in 1543 

 and 1544 was successively demolished hy an inroad of the 

 English, represented by the Armstrongs. A little further 

 West, on the right, is situated the hamlet of Yarrow-feus, at 

 present occupied by artizans employed by the neighbouring 

 farmers, and reminiscent of a state of things existing since 

 1792, when portions of land in this district were allotted in 

 feus, which have survived in the name now given to 

 this industrious colony. Immediately behind these, and on a 

 ridge overlooking the farm of Catslackburn, stood the tower 

 of Catslack, regarding which the legend runs that in 1548 

 the Kers, assisted by the English, reduced it to ashes to 

 wreak vengeance on their inveterate foes, the Scotts, and 

 that in the conflagration the aged widow of Buccleuch, herself 

 a Ker of Cessford, perished. At the Gordon Arms Inn, so 

 named in honour of its builder, and distant thirteen miles 

 from Selkirk, a halt was made to allow the travellers an 

 opportunity of visiting the last meeting-place of the Ettrick 

 Shepherd and the Border Minstrel, and of viewing the farm 

 of Mountbenger, originally Mont Berger, or "Shepherd's Hill," 

 long occupied by the flocks of the King and Queen. Behind 

 the present farmhouse, on a rising knoll named Bengerknowe, 

 was situated the temporary abode of the Ettrick Shepherd, 

 where he sought to gratify his early ambition of becoming a 

 stock-farmer in the district where, as a boy, he had indulged 

 his day-dreams ; but encountering misfortune in various forms, 

 he ultimately retired to Altrive, and died in the farmhouse 

 of Eldinhope, on the South side of the river. The Inn 

 occupies an angle where the Innerleithen road intersects the 

 road from Yarrow, at a distance of twenty-one miles from 

 Moffat, and six and a quarter miles by the Hartleap road 

 from the Ettrick valley, near Tushielaw. Three miles further 

 West lies St. Mary's Loch ; but ere reaching it the Douglas 

 Burn is crossed, which takes its rise in the Dun Rig, 2,500 

 feet, the highest point in Selkirkshire, and in ite course 

 towards Yarrow flows past the ruins of Blackhouse Tower, a 

 baronial residence of the Lords of Douglas, and traditionally 

 the scene of "The Douglas Tragedy." Overlooking the 

 Eastern extremity of the lake, and occupying a slight eminence 



