Meggernie Castle has not been ascertained, there is a Charter in the
“Register of the Great Seal,” dated 4th March 1603, whereby James VI.
confers upon Duncan Campbell of Glen Lyon, certain lands which were
united to make up the Barony of Glen Lyon, the chief house of the baron
being named as “the Tower called Meggernie.” The previous Keep seems to
have been thatched, but Sir Duncan Campbell put slates on his tower,
and it was finished much in the style it now shows. Additions have, of
course, been made as the years went on, and there is now a fine modern
mansion added to the old building and quite in keeping with it. The
walls of the old Castle are five feet in thickness, and have evidently
been erected for defensive purposes. There are four square towers, one
at each corner, bracketed out from the walls, which give a quaint and
ancient appearance to the structure, that is emphasised by the dormer
windows with triangular tympanies. As was customary at the time of its
erection, there are few windows in the walls, and some of these are
only a little larger than old-fashioned arrow-slits. The Castle is five
storeys in height.
Before leaving Sir Duncan Campbell of Glen Lyon, it may be as well
to explain that he was not the first to evict the MacGregors, but he
certainly carried on the heartless policy of his predecessors, and left
it as a legacy to his descendants. So early as October 1488, the then
“Duncane Campbell of Glenurchquha,” entered into a contract with Robert
Menzies, Laird of Weem, near Aberfeldy, by which they mutually bound
themselves to protect and support each other against the MacGregors;
and this arrangement was often renewed. Even so late as 1665, when
Alexander Menzies of Castle Menzies, son of Duncan Menzies of Weem, was
made first baronet, he was married to Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir
John Campbell of Glenorchy; and afterwards there were several marriages
which linked the two families together. With such strong adversaries
against them, it is no wonder that the ancient clan was dispersed and
ruined.
“Glenorchay’s proud mountains, Coalchuirn and her towers,
Glenstrae and Glen Lyon no longer are ours;
We’re landless, landless, landless, Gregarach.”
In 1564, the Earl of Argyll obtained a Commission of Fire and Sword
which was aimed at the extermination of the disbanded clan; and long
after that date the intermarriages of the Campbells of Argyll and
the Menzies family kept alive the vendetta against the MacGregors.
Then Captain Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon in 1695, having coveted the
possession of Glencoe, then in the hands of a sept of the MacDonald
Clan, put in execution that horrible incident known as the Massacre of
Glencoe, which has branded his name with perpetual infamy. No doubt
it was at Meggernie Castle--then called Glen Lyon--that he planned
and carried through this execrable crime. The details of Campbell’s
treachery are well-known--how he was entertained by the Chief of the
MacDonalds for a fortnight, and fell upon the clansmen and slaughtered
them:--
“The hand that mingled in the meal,
At midnight drew the felon steel,
And gave the host’s kind breast to feel
Meed for his hospitality!
The friendly heart which warmed that hand,
At midnight armed it with a brand,
That bade destruction’s flames expand
Their red and fearful blazonry.”
In Thomas Talfourd’s remarkable drama, “Glencoe; or The Fate of the
MacDonalds,” the following lines occur in the speech of Lady MacDonald,
reproaching Glen Lyon for his treachery:--
“Glen Lyon,
I pray you may have life stretched out beyond
The common span of mortals, to endure
The curse of Glencoe cleaving to your soul.”
Glen Lyon survived, and did not expiate the fearful crime he had
committed, for he was defended and even thanked by William III. for his
deed of blackest treachery and ingratitude.
While the historical interest centres in Meggernie Castle, there is
much to engage the attention of the visitor in the policies, and in the
varied trees with which the place is decorated. This feature is almost
entirely due to the devoted labours of James Menzies of Culdares,
one of the most competent arboriculturists of his time. Culdares has
been in the possession of a branch of the Menzies family from 1659;
and it was in 1730-40 that the Laird carried out his great reform of
the district by tree-planting. It is said that he was the first to
make the larch popular. After passing the Bridge of Balgie, the road
leads to the entrance to the policies of Meggernie Castle, which is
approached by a splendid avenue of lime, beech, elm and spruce trees,
the interlacing branches of which form a vernal arch of foliage beside
the river Lyon. This avenue, which is nearly two miles in length,
was entirely planted by Mr. Menzies, and has thriven remarkably. It
circles around the Castle, which stands about 700 feet above sea-level.
Authentic measurement of some of these trees are worth recording. One
of the elm trees, measured in 1883, girths 19 feet 2 inches at one foot
from the ground, and 16 feet 5 inches at five feet up the stem. The
lime trees in the avenue are very picturesque, and have reached a fair
development, one of them girthing 13 feet 3 inches at two feet from
the ground. The beeches also a very satisfactory growth. Other notable
trees are the larches and scots firs, some of these having attained
considerable dimensions. All the country surrounding the Castle has
been transformed since the time of James Menzies by judicious planting,
and presents a scene of woodland splendour, though there are still
portions susceptible of improvement.
The extensive estates of the Campbells of Breadalbane march with the
policies of Meggernie, which have been held and greatly increased
during several centuries. It used to be said that the Earl or Marquess
could ride for a hundred miles over his own patrimonial domains.
Meggernie remained in the Menzies family for centuries, but was
acquired in 1884, by the late Mr. John Bullough, father of the present
Sir George Bullough, 1st Baronet, who succeeded his father in 1891, and
now resides at Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rhum, Inverness-shire. A few
years ago Sir George disposed of Meggernie Castle and estate to Sir
Ernest Salter Wills, 3rd Baronet, who succeeded his brother, the 2nd
Baronet, in 1921, and makes Meggernie Castle, Glen Lyon, his Scottish
residence. The Wills family have had a long and honourable connection
with Bristol.
X
FERNIEHIRST CASTLE
The lovely valley of the Tweed, and the whole stretch of the
border-land through which it meanders, have been the theme of poet
and painter from very remote times. The ever-varying shades of human
character which the fluctuating current of events made dominant in that
region, and the stirring scenes of which it was witness, awake the
harp of the Border Minstrel, and called into existence the national
historical ballads. And the situation of Tweedside, upon the debatable
ground betwixt England and Scotland, has caused each Tower and Keep to
have its story of love or war, of jocund mirth or of unutterable woe.
The hallowing influence of time and the growth of a higher form of
human sympathy have conspired to render the stories of Border warfare
interesting by force of contrast. And there is a flavour of romance
about these bold Border Barons--the Free Lances of our country, who
held the balance betwixt England and Scotland in their own hands,
which links them with the Ritters of Germany or the Knights of France,
rather than with the soldiers of a more prosaic country. Their mixed
origin, which combined the boldness and daring of the Southron with
the “canniness” of the Scot, made them appear as a transitional race
betwixt these two, and yet distant from either. And though their
courage often bordered upon ferocity, and their liberty included an
absence of all reverence for the Eighth Commandment, they are not the
less interesting as studies of human nature.
The country in which they dwelt largely accounts for their
peculiarities. The influence of scenery upon the formation of character
has seldom been philosophically examined, yet there is much to be
discovered in this line of investigation. The mysterious attraction
which the snow-capped peaks of the Fatherland has for the Swiss
emigrant whom Fate has transported to distant climes, has its parallel
in the feeling with which the Borderer mourns his separation from the
loved scenes of his youth, laments the inconstancy of fortune which
has reft him from them, and hears in fancy reproaches of the departed
spirits of his forefathers upbraiding him for his desertion. This forms
the theme of many a Border ballad and song, and often awakens sad
memories in impressionable hearts:--
“Their feeble voices from their stream they raise--
‘Rash youth! unmindful of thy early days,
Why didst thou quit the humble peasant’s lot?
Why didst thou leave the peasant’s turf-built cot,
The ancient graves where all thy fathers lie,
And Teviot’s stream that long has murmured by?’”
The verdant hills, the fertile meads, the whispering streams of his own
native vale seem brighter and fairer when the memory comes back to him
beneath the burning sky of a foreign land; and the peace once enjoyed
in the scenes of his infancy becomes still more dear, as it is less
attainable in the ever-whirling race after riches. With something of
this feeling did John Leyden write, when, from his natal spot, he mused
upon the vagaries into which the pursuit of wealth had led him beneath
the tropical sky:--
“By Cherical’s dark wandering streams,
Where cane-tufts shadow all the wild,
Sweet visions haunt my waking dreams
Of Teviot, loved while still a child;
Of castled rocks, stupendous piled,
By Esk or Eden’s classic wave,
Where loves of youth and friendship smiled,
Uncursed by thee, vile yellow slave!”
The Water of Jed, which rises, as Rowen Burn at an altitude of 1500
feet, on the western slope of Carlin Tooth, one of the Cheviot Hills,
wanders in a varied course of about 22 miles, ere it falls into the
Teviot near Mounteviot House, and then the conjoined rivers become
tributary to the Tweed, and flow towards the North Sea. In its course
the Jed passes through the ancient burgh of Jedburgh, and also is near
to Ferniehirst Castle which is now to form our theme. Teviotdale,
though ostensibly a separate valley, is really parallel with Tweedside,
and has all the characteristics of that famous vale. It has been
chosen as a proper and convenient site for a Castle to accommodate an
important branch of the powerful Ker family, so as to be convenient
when raids over the Border were contemplated.
The original Castle of Ferniehirst was destroyed, as is afterwards
related, by the Earl of Sussex in 1570; but the exact date of the
erection of the previous Castle has not been definitely discovered.
Certainly there was a Castle of some kind here so early as 1445, for
Thomas Ker of Smailholme and Ferniehirst is mentioned in a Charter of
that date. He was the descendant of a branch of the family who settled
near Jedburgh about the year 1330; and the Ferniehirst representatives
claimed to be the lineal descendants of Ralph Ker, who were proprietors
in the district about the middle of the 14th century, though a long
dispute ensued between the children of two brothers as to which
progenitor was the elder of the two. Andrew Ker of Ferniehirst, in
1509-11 acquired the Barony of Oxnam, and from him descended the later
members of the family.
Early in the history of Scotland the town of Jedburgh, and the valley
of the Jed, were a favourite resort of royalty, for the Castle of
Jedburgh, upon whose site has been built the present County Prison,
was the chosen home of David I. Here also his son Malcolm IV. lived
and died; and was succeeded by William the Lion. Alexander II.
resided frequently in Jedburgh Castle. The story of Alexander III.’s
connection with the Castle was a melancholy one.
Alexander III., who had paid frequent visits to Jedburgh Castle, was
married to Joleta, daughter of the lordly De Coucy, Count of Breux, in
the Abbey of Jedburgh, and celebrated his nuptials in the Castle by a
grand ball. The family of De Coucy, thus united to the Scottish throne,
was of Anglo-Norman descent, and held a high position in their native
land for many years.
“The fame of the fearless De Coucy
Was boundless as the sea.”
Indeed, so superior were the claims of this family to renown that their
battle-cry evinced their contempt for ordinary titles, and gloried in
their own name as superior to added rank--
“_Je ne suis Roy, ni Prince aussi,
Je suis le Seigneur de Coucy._”
The wedding of Alexander III. with a daughter of this race was
celebrated with becoming splendour. But the magnificence was marred
by an untoward incident. Whilst the revels were at their highest an
uninvited guest appeared in the shape of a grisly spectre, who mingled
in hateful familiarity with the noble guests then present. So wretched
a sight, so fatal an augury, could not escape remark and foreboding.
The guests beheld with doubt and trembling the aweinspiring vision,
and feared to utter their apprehensive thoughts. As a quaint old writer
has put it:--
“In the mid-revels the first ominous night
Of their espousals, when the moon shone bright,
With lighted tapers--the King and Queen leading
The curious measures--Lords and Ladies treading
The self-same strains--the King looks back by chance,
And spies a strange intruder in the dance,
Namely, a mere anatomy, quite bare,
His naked limbs both without flesh and hair
(As we depicture Death), who stalks about,
Keeping true measure till the dance be out.
The King, with all the rest, affrighted stand;
The spectre vanished, and the strict command
Was given to break up revels; each ’gan fear
The other, and presage disaster near.
If any ask, ‘What did of this succeed?’
The King, soon after falling from his steed,
Unhappily died; after whose death ensuing
Was to the land sedition, wreck, and ruin.”
Apart from the superstition is undoubtedly the fact that Alexander
III., so soon after his wedding, should have met a violent death.
In less than a year from this time the King, riding by night on the
perilous pathway betwixt Kinghorn and Burntisland, was thrown from his
horse over the precipice which towers above the Firth of Forth, and
killed instantaneously. And from this sad event arose the contest for
the Scottish Crown which gave Edward I. of England an excuse for his
fatal interference with the affairs of the nation. Few of the Kings of
Scotland have been more deeply lamented than Alexander III., possibly
because few of them were so upright in character and so morally pure as
he; and it was not without foreboding that the statesmen of the time
looked into the future of their country. A verse from an ancient ballad
of the time expresses this feeling in quaint language:--
“Quhen Alysandre our Kyng wes dede,
That Scotland led in luve and lee,
Away wes sons of Ale and Brede,
Of Wyne and Wax, of Gamyn and Gle;
Oure gold wes changey’d into lede;
Crist, born into virginite,
Succour Scotland and remede
That sted is in perplexite.”
The political dilemma in which Scotland was placed, and the ambitious
designs of Edward, made the Border-land the scene of continued
incursions and retaliations, and the chiefs of the various clans were
compelled to erect strongholds in their own defence. The power which
they thus attained made them less dependent upon either party than
they would otherwise have been; and they came to look upon the Marches
as a separate state, distinct from either Kingdom. A tacit bond of
union existed between the various septs who inhabited the district,
and they thus formed an alliance for mutual defence. The Scotts and
the Armstrongs, the Johnstons and the Kers were the Ishmaelites of
Scotland, ever ready for a foray either north or south of the Tweed.
Amongst these clans the Kers held a high position. For many years
the head of the sept was Warden of the Middle Marches; and as the
ground over which his empire extended formed the natural communication
between England and Scotland, the post was no sinecure. The Castle
of Ferniehirst, near Jedburgh, which was held by Sir Thomas Ker from
1474 till his becoming a priest in 1481, and dying three years after,
naturally occupied a prominent place in this long contest; and for
many years it was a centre around which conflict raged. Often has the
courtyard rang with the warlike sound of spears and jacks, of boot and
saddle, as the gay moss-troopers assembled within its walls, ready
alike for feast or fray.
So important was Ferniehirst considered that, when the English under
Surrey were engaged upon the storming of Jedburgh, it was deemed
necessary to secure the Castle that the conquest of the locality might
be complete. Lord Dacre was detailed for this service and sent with 800
men and several pieces of cannon to reduce the stronghold. He found the
enterprise more difficult than he had imagined, for the walls of the
Castle had been built to withstand a siege, and it was garrisoned by
men who were fighting for life and liberty. Though ultimately captured
by the English, it was not without great loss to the besiegers, and
only the aid of the heavy ordnance made its defence impossible. The
testimony of Surrey (no partial critic), to the courage of the
Borderers shows most clearly their aspect in war. Writing to Cardinal
Wolsey, he says:--“I assure your Grace I found the Scots at this time
the boldest men and the hottest that ever I saw any nation.” Detailing
his battle at Ferniehirst, he writes:--“They found hardy men that went
nae back for theym, though after long skirmyshing and moche difficutie,
gat for the ordynance within the house, and threw down the same.”
But the Borderer, though conquered, never yields. Lord Dacre, after
his fatiguing siege, and, contrary to the express command of Surrey,
encamped beyond the lines of the English army. No longer anticipating
resistance, an easy watch was kept; and whilst the leaders were at
dinner celebrating their victory, some of the Scottish troopers were
hardy enough to approach the spot where the English horses were
quartered, and turned them loose in the camp. The turmoil which the
affrighted animals made terrified their masters, and the deepening
twilight prevented them from ascertaining the true cause. The stampede
which now ensued alarmed even the soldiers of Surrey, who believed that
the horses, whose frantic gallop they heard in the darkness betokened
the approach of a vast army to overthrow and utterly confound them.
Nor was their error discovered before many of their steeds had fallen
into the hands of the Scotsmen and became their lawful prey. The
superstition of the age permitted Surrey’s statement that the Devil
was seen in a visible form six times during this turbulent scene to
pass unchallenged; and the accusation of witchcraft formed an easy
excuse for the tremor of his own army. And though victorious, he had to
confess that he found the inhabitants of the Scottish Border were of
a different character from the mixed army under James IV., which his
father had met and conquered at Flodden Field.
A time of reprisal at length arrived for the Border Chiefs. After the
disastrous Battle of Pinkie in 1547, the English Army had again taken
possession of the country near the Cheviot Hills, and garrisoned the
town of Jedburgh. The French General, Monsieur D’Essé, however, had
led his troops against them, and soon drove them from this stronghold.
Taking advantage of the diversion thus made in favour of Scotland, Ker
of Ferniehirst sought the assistance of the French troops to regain
his ancient homestead. To this D’Essé consented, and despatched a
reconnoitring party under the command of some of his own officers,
whilst Ker followed with his main contingent. The Castle had been kept
in garrison by the English from the time of its previous capture in
1523, and the rumour of disturbances in the surrounding country kept
them on the alert. The advance guard of the French troops, therefore,
found that the narrow pass that leads toward the Castle was defended
by twenty-five arquebusiers, who might serve as an outpost in case of
attack, and might warn the keepers of the Castle of the approach of an
enemy. The Frenchmen charged this picket and drove them in hot haste
towards the fortress, pursuing them closely. They fired as they fled,
endeavouring to keep their pursuers at bay; but ere they reached the
gate ten out of the twenty-five were slain, and not one of them was
without tokens of this bitter and close conflict.
The resistance which they had met only stimulated the attacking
force to greater energy; and when Ker arrived on the scene, with
the remainder of the troops, they at once set about an escalade.
Throwing long poles instead of ladders against the walls, they boldly
clambered up the escarpment; whilst many of them, infuriated by the
blood already shed, made good their entrance by climbing up the
rough-cast wall, heedless of the showers of missiles which the besieged
rained incessantly upon them. Once on the battlements their task was
comparatively light. They soon drove the English soldiers inside the
donjon tower, the citadel of the Castle, and then, leaping from their
elevation into the base-court below, they proceeded to attempt a breach
in the wall of the inner works. Sheltering themselves from the stones
that still poured down on their heads, they were not long in making an
entrance. As the captain of the English forces saw his game played out,
he offered to surrender if the lives of his troops and of himself were
spared. But D’Essé would not listen to such terms of capitulation, and
insisted upon an absolute surrender. Thinking himself safer with D’Essé
than with the Borderers, now all aflame for revenge, the captain
consented; but one of the Borderers, his sworn foe, came up and struck
off his head at one blow.
The pent-up vengeance of the Scotsmen now had full sway, and they
placed no restraint upon their passions. The unfortunate Englishmen
had to endure the punishment due to the sins of their forefathers. It
is even said that the prisoners that D’Essé had taken were brought
forth that the Borderers might wreak their fury upon them, and fearful
barbarities were practised upon their victims. The French General
Beaugé, however, describes these as only fair retaliation for the
conduct of their enemies towards themselves.
The term of the existence of Ferniehirst Castle was reached in 1570.
The death of the Regent Moray had thrown political affairs into
confusion, and Sir Thomas Ker of Ferniehirst and Sir Walter Scott of
Buccleugh entered England with fire and sword, and joined the Earl of
Westmoreland in a foray across the Border. Though successful in this
enterprise they soon suffered retribution. Queen Elizabeth, enraged at
the daring raid, ordered the Earl of Sussex and Lord Scrope to invade
the Scottish territory and lay the Borders in ruins, These two noblemen
at the head of a large army, entered the land of Teviotdale and laid
waste the territory. The Scotts of Buccleugh, the Kers, and the Homes
were the chief objects of their revenge; and it is computed that they
destroyed in this fatal conflict not less than fifty Castles, sacked
and burned 300 villages, and finally took possession of Home Castle,
which had been the centre of disaffection to English rule. The abode
of so well-known a warrior as Ker of Ferniehirst was not likely to be
spared in such a wholesale demolition; and the troops which Sussex led
against it left little save the bare and blackened walls.
The present edifice consists of these ruins, with some modern additions
which render it habitable as a dwelling-house for the tenant of the
farm. But its glory has long passed away; and it stands now as a
monument of that dim and shadowy past which was tenanted by beings
whose boldness and daring are seldom met with in these latter days.
The Age of Iron has given place to the Age of Electroplate, and we
now plume ourselves upon the perfection of our shams, and indulge in
congratulations over the success of our deceptions.
“Now avardlie wisdom is deceit,
And falset haldin policie;
Richt few from guill can now debait,
So great is the hypocrisie.
Some will speak fair and friendfullie,
For profit wald dissaive their brother;
Sae rife is infidelitie,
Ane kinsman skant may trew ane other.”