1911-19J2.] A Mid'Lothian Burn, 395 



Tower and Gogar Park to the reach, familiar to any one walk- 

 ing south from Gogar village. 



For the next half-mile or so our stream pursues its course 

 through the policies and in front of the mansion-house of 

 Gogar Burn. The fields to our left at one time were known 

 as the " Flashes," a name of doubtful origin, although the 

 attempt has been made to connect it with the fight which 

 here took place on August 27, 1650, between the forces of 

 Cromwell and Leslie. To-day the greenest of pasture lands,, 

 it appears to have been then wild and uncultivated — a place 

 of bogs and marshes. In Cromwell's words, — "The van- 

 guards of both the armies came to skirmish upon a place 

 where bogs and grasses made the access of each army to the 

 other difficult. We, being ignorant of the place, drew up 

 hoping to have engaged, but found no way feasible by reason 

 of the bogs and other difficulties. We drew up our cannon 

 and did that day discharge two or three hundred great shot 

 upon them ; a considerable number they also returned to us ; 

 and this was all that passed from each other." And again. 

 Captain Hodgson, Carlyle's " Pudding-headed Hodgson," the 

 Yorkshire captain, informs us, — "Both armies marched to- 

 Gogar, Tuesday, August 27th, and played each upon other 

 with their great guns ; but because of Gogar Burn and other 

 ditches betwixt the armies, they could not join battle." Gogar 

 burn and otlieT ditches^ forsooth ! But it is only Pudding- 

 headed Hodgson that writes thus. 



In 1811 when the mansion of Gogar Burn was in course 

 of erection, a bronze sword and scabbard tip, a circular buckle,, 

 also of bronze, and a ring-shaped article of gold, were found ; 

 all four articles are to be seen in the Antiquarian Museum,. 

 Queen Street. Also interesting to the antiquarian are the 

 numerous stone graves laid bare when the neighbouring 

 mansion of Hanley was being built in 1834-35. At one 

 time Hanley went under the name of Gogar Camp. 



The village of Gogar is said to have contained at one time 

 over 300 inhabitants. At the end of the eighteenth century 

 it had among others a watchmaker, a flesher, a baker, a black- 

 smith, a Wright, and a schoolmaster. In 1838, including 

 the farm, it numbered only seven families, with 24 indi- 

 viduals. Small though it was even at its largest, the village 



