They remarked riding home one day from Edinburgh to Roslin, found a poor gipsy about to be hanged on the gibbet at Burghmoor, and brought him off unharmed. And, in remembrance of this kindness, says Father Hay, 'the whole body of gipsies were accustomed to gather in the stanks (marshes) of Roslin every year, where they acted several plays during the months of May and June. They were also accommodated at the castle, where 'there are two towers which were allowed them for their residence the one called Robin Hood, the other Little John.' The Privy Council had their attention called to this Patmos of the outlawed race. that, while the laws enjoined all persons in authority' to execute to the deid the counterfeit thieves and limmers, the Egyptians,' it was nevertheless reported that a number of them were within the bounds of Roslin, 'where they have a peaceable receipt and abode as if they were lawful subjects, committing stowths and reifs in all parts where they may find the occasion.' The council, therefore, issued an order to the sheriff of the district, who happened to be Sinclair the younger, of Roslin, commanding him to pass, search, seek, hunt, follow, and pursue the said vagabonds, and thieves, and limmers,' and bring them to the Talbooth at Edinburgh for due punishment. This was probably done; for an order for the execution of a number of Egyptians was issued on the ensuing 27th of January.* Passing on from here towards Hawthornden, we soon find ourselves in the dense coppice that clothes the rocky bank of the river. The bank is traversed with walks, which, with their varied combinations of rock, wood, and water, afford numberless studies for the * Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 536. THE CAVES OF GORTON. 411 artist. At one point, close down beside the river, the walk had been scooped out from the red sandstone; and from the overhanging rock, some fifteen or twenty feet overhead, dangled a variety of creeping plants, from the midst of which tumbled a tiny waterfall which cleared the walk at a bound, and fell on to the shelving rock over which the river ran. Just here the course of the Esk is very sinuous; and as its narrow stream is bounded by rocks that are almost, if not quite precipitous, the foliage of the river's banks in some places nearly closes overhead, and the view of the stream presents a series of the most lovely vistas. A little further on, and we are stopped by a wall, which is carried down from the high ground to the very edge of the river, and divides the Roslin grounds from those of Hawthornden. This defence against intruders is continued across the river itself by means of chevauxde-frise, beams, and a swinging gate; therefore, if we wish to visit Hawthornden House, which is on the opposite side of the stream, we must either go on to Mavisbank or retrace our steps to that bridge, on the other side of the castle, of which we made use when we wished to gain a view of Roslin from the southern heights. On our way back through these beautiful walks, and down by the 'sweet glen and greenwood tree,' we may notice the prevalence of caves in the rocks that overhang the stream. The chief of these are the caves of Gorton, midway between Hawthornden and Roslin, and on the farther side of the stream. They are carved high up in a precipitous rock; and as we look at them from these Roslin walks, they appear inaccessible. As they are laid out in the form of a cross, it is thought that they were originally the abode of hermits; and they are supposed to have furnished shelter to the gallant Sir Alexander Ramsay, of Dalhousie, and his followers, when harassed by the English army (after their capture of Edinburgh) in the reign of David II. The caverns at Hawthornden were also used by the same persons for a like purpose. On the same side of the river is also a cave, which goes by the name of Wallace's Cave, fashioned in the form of a cross, and capable of holding sixty or seventy men. Wallace's 'Cast' or camp is not far to the north-west of this cave, on the other side of that pretty burn which is one of the Esk's tributaries, and which bears a name suggestive to English midland county ears of the very antipodes to poetry and the picturesque-viz. Bilston. But as for Roslin and its glen, we might station ourselves at almost any point throughout its fair domain, and feel inclined to question Lord Marmion's decision as to the supremacy in landscape-picturesqueness of the view from Blackford Hill : Still on the spot Lord Marmion stay'd, 'It is telling a tale,' says Sir Walter Scott, in his less-known work on the 'Provincial Antiquities of Scotland' it is telling a tale which has been repeated a thousand times, to say, that a morning of leisure can scarcely be anywhere more delightfully spent than in the woods of Roslin and on the banks of the Esk. In natural beauty, indeed, the scenery may be equalled, and in grandeur exceeded, by the Cartland Crags, near Lanark, the dell of Craighall, in Angus-shire, and probably by other landscapes of the same character which have been less celebrated. But Roslin and its adjacent scenery have other associations, dear to the antiquary and historian, which may fairly entitle it to precedence over every other Scottish scene of the same kind.' And so say we ! CHAPTER XLI. HAWTHORNDEN. Hawthornden House in Olden Time-The Modern Building- THE glen scenery of Roslin is continued to Haw thornden, which is within a mile of Roslin Castle, but on the opposite side of the Esk. Hawthornden House has been constructed on the very edge of a precipitous grey limestone rock, whose base is washed by the river. Its position marks it out as having been originally built with a view to defence. Only a fragment now exists of the old fortalice, whose early history, as in the case of Roslin, is altogether lost; but the family still preserve as relics of the old Hawthornden a marble slab, inscribed with the date 1396, and the initials of King Robert III. and his Queen Annabella Drummond, also her silk dress and shoes, and a two-handed sword of Robert Bruce. The modern Hawthornden dates back to 1638, as is testified by the following inscription over the entrance |