Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/206

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NOTES

ON

CANTO I.



The feast was over in Branksome Tower.—St. I. p. 9.

In the reign of James I. Sir William Scott, of Buccleuch, chief of the clan bearing that name, exchanged with Sir Thomas Inglis of Manor, the estate of Murdiestone, in Lanarkshire, for one half of the barony of Branksome, or Branxholm[1], lying upon the Teviot, about three miles above Hawick. He was probably induced to this transaction from the vicinity of Branksome to the extensive domain which he possessed in Ettricke forest and in Teviotdale. In the former district he held by occupancy the estate of Buccleuch[2], and much of the fo-

  1. Branxholm is the proper name of the barony; but Branksome has been adopted as suitable to the pronunciation, and more proper for poetry.
  2. There are no vestiges of any building at Buccleuch, except the site of a chapel, where, according to a tradition current in the time of Scott of Satchells, many of the ancient barons of Buccleuch lie buried. There is also said to have been a mill near this solitary spot; an extraordinary circumstance, as little or no corn grows within several miles of Buccleuch. Satchells says it was used to grind corn for the hounds of the chieftain.