Michael Forbes Tweedie. Published 1902.
CHAPTER VIII
Professor Veitch, who knew every foot of the district, tells us that the abandoned towers or dwelling places standing in Tweeddale still form one of the most characteristic and suggestive features of Tweedside. The ruined Border peel meets you, he says, on many a knowe, but as a rule not much of it remains. In many cases the tower itself, with the quaint human life carried on within it, the comfort or what little there was of it, the terror and alarm, the hopes and fears, the courage to face danger, all have equally passed away, and seldom now have we aught but the solitary ash, whose roots are enwoven beneath the green mound, where once the hall was bright and the hearthstone gleamed.
The word "peel", which is universally used of these Border Castles, is the same name as the Cymri gave to their hill dwellings. "Pill" in British and Cornish as well as in the language of ancient Gaul, signifies a moated or fossed fort, and like the old circular forts of Cymri, the mediaeval towers are built carefully in sight of each other and may be traced all the way up the valley of the Tweed, from Berwick to the Beild, near Oliver. The Professor considers that it would be difficult to fix the exact date of the erection of any existing building or ruin in the shape of a Border Castle. They were so frequently destroyed and rebuilt in the reigns of the early Stuarts, that we must, he considers, regard what remains of them rather as representing to some extent the more ancient form of structure, than as the actual buildings of the time of Robert the Bruce and his son.
From the earliest days of mediaeval times the Castles and Strongholds were the characteristic features of the old Scottish landscape. Alexander Hume of Polwarth in his poem, "Thanks for a Summer Day", written in the days of King James VI, refers to them:-
"The rayons of the sunne we see
Diminish in their strength;
The schad of everie towre and tree,
Extended is in length;
Great is the calm for everie quhair
The wind is settin downe;
The reik thrawes right up in the air,
From everie towre and towne."
Very few of these old towers are now entire. The professor draws a striking picture of what one was like in the days when they formed the only residences of the inhabitants of Tweeddale. The external appearance was that of a solid square mass of masonry, generally the greywacke of the district, perforated with holes or boles, which admitted light and air and also served for defence. It was usually perched on a knoll or eminence, perhaps the top of a scarped rock with a craggy face; the Tweed itself, or one of the tributary waters or burns, flowed near; some birches and hazels, an ash or an elm, dotted the knoll; and on the green braes a few sheep or cattle quietly pastured.
These towers were usually places of great strength and were seldom of more than three storeys. The lowest or apartment on the ground floor, was almost universally vaulted; and this was frequently the case with the storey immediately above, forming the hall or dining room. The ground floor apartment was probably the storehouse for the Martinmas Mart and winter provisions generally. It might in some cases have been a refuge for the cattle about the tower in times of danger. Occasionally there were two vaulted chambers on the ground floor divided by a thick wall, as in the ancient Castle Hill of Manor. The second or third storeys accommodated the family, with what comfort or decency it would be, perhaps painful to imagine. There was usually a narrow spiral stair leading to the top, on which there were projecting battlements, often machicoules, and in the centre of the space there, a kind of gabled cattage, which served both as kitchen and watch tower. Here also on the top or roof storey of the peel was the bartisan, the passage round and behind the battlements, which served as a place of outlook, and also as the withdrawing room for the ladies of the household on a quiet summer afternoon or evening. On the edge of the upper wall or roof, or attached sometimes to the chimney, hung an iron cone, sunk in an iron grating, "the fire pan", filled with fuel, peat and pine root, ready to be lit at the moment of alarm. The tower had generally two doors, an inside wooden one of uncommon strength studded with iron nails with broad heads, and an outside iron gate that opened on the inside. One of these doors and gates was preserved in the Parish of Broughton for a long time as a piece of antiquity, and was seen by many persons so late as 1793. "These Castles", says Dr Johnson, "afford another evidence that the fictions of romantic chivalry had for their real basis the real manners of feudal times when every Lord of a Seignory lived in his stronghold lawless and unaccountable, with all the licentiousness and insolence of uncontested superiority and unprincipled power". There was usually a court yard in front of the tower, surrounded by a wall called the barmkyn, the access to which was through a strong iron gate or studded oaken or ashen door. According to the Act of Parliament, 12th June 1535, the wall of the barmkyn was to be one ell thick, roughly thirty seven inches, and six ells in height, that is over eighteen feet. The space enclosed was sixty feet, and within this the cattle could be driven at night, or in case of a surprise. Inside or around the courtyard enclosed by the barmkyn were the huts or dwellings of the immediate retainers of the family.
The internal fittings of these towers were no doubt, rude enough. The upper or convex part of the vaulted roof of each storey was usually covered with a wooden floor, and as a precursor of the modern carpet, the boards were generally strewn with the bent grass of the moors, or the rushes of the haughs. With these would be mingled sweet smelling herbs, such as thyme, bed-straw, or fresh heather. The fragrance of the hillside would thus at least for a time be felt in the narrow and ill-lighted rooms. Glass was rare and costly, and the narrow boles that served for windows were either left wholly open, or they were fitted with a board that served as a shutter. Well on into the time of the Stuarts "glessin-work" - opus vitreum - was found only in the houses of the wealthy. Gawain Douglas, in his famous prologue, on Winter, prefixed to the Seventh book of the Aeneid, speaking of getting up in the raw winter morning, tells us that he:-
"Bad beit the fyire, and the candill alycht
Syne blessit me, and, in my weydis dycht
Ane schot wyndo unschet, a lytill on char
Per saivit the mornyng bla, wan and har."
This window, evidently without glass, was common at the time, and the lines almost give a chilly feeling of the cold raw air entering in the early dawn of winter, through the "unschet" or open aperture that served to admit light and air.
The significant feature of the picture, when these peels were the important points of the district, is that of the iron cone sunk in the iron grating which holds the bale or need-fire, the meaning of the word being originally a flame, a blaze, then signal fire. To quote the old Border Law,
"And in the time of warfare, the beacon . . . in the fire pan be keeped, and never fail burning so long as the Englishmen remain in Scotland; and with one bell . . . which shall ring whenever the fray is . . . and whoever bides from the fray, or turns again so long as the beacon burns, or the bell rings, shall be holden as partakers to the enemies, and used as traitors."
No signal ever stirred the breast more deeply, or told its story more clearly and picturesquely than that glaring bale-fire. It did its work with incredible rapidity - a rapidity quite telegraphic. Each tower was situated so as to catch the warning from its neighbour at a distance frequently of only 2 or 3 miles. When of an evening at the Fireburn, near Coldstream, the bale fire flared out, the answering flame rose and was seen so speedily all up Teviotdale, up Ettrick and Yarrow, and up Tweeddale to its furthest wilds, that by the early morning ten thousand armed men have been known to meet together at a single place of rendezvous.
Professor Veitch, from whom we have quoted, ends with the following fine reflections:-
"It was the flame of the beacon fire along these valleys and streams, so often lit, which fused the people into a common body, kept them true to their allegiance to the Scottish king and the Scottish nationality. Hate and resistance to the Southerner, the common interest of self-defence, banded them into a unity among themselves, and kept them from breaking off from the king who nominally reigned over them, but really only ruled in Fife and the Lothians. He was to them a rallying centre against a common and powerful foe, and little more than this. The 'Hammer of the Scots', and those who kept on hammering, while they thought to break, only welded them at every stroke into a harder and more inseparable nationality."
And if it thus formed the national character so did it that of the individuals. In the letter written to Pope John XXII, in which the people of the country ask him to require the English king to respect the independence of Scotland and mind his own affairs, they say, "So long as a hundred of us are left alive, we will never in any degree be subjected to the English"; and they never were.
Tradition unmistakably points to Tinnies Castle as one of the earliest strongholds of the Tweedies, or of those who afterwards came to bear that surname when surnames came into fashion, and although Chambers says there is no historical record, we do actually find in the register of the Great Seal John Tweedie described as Lord of Thanes Castle in Drummelzier in the Charter granted to him by James IV of the Horne Hunteris lands in the Barony of Innerleithen.
Tinnies Castle stood at the opening of the highway down to the Strath of Biggar Water to the Tweed, and is not improbable the Fort of Tweed referred to as Alt-Teutha in one of the oldest Ossianic poems entitled "Calthon and Colmal". When speaking of the upper reaches of the river, Chambers, in his History of Peebleshire, says of this place, that in no part of Scotland was there any feudal keep so like a robber's castle on the Rhine as that of Tinnes, which, occupying the summit of a lofty knoll, towered over the plain of Drummelzier, and was in all respects a fitting residence for one who set the law at defiance. Tinnies, or Tinnis, is, it is suggested, a corruption of Dinas, which is one of the Generic names in Cymric for a fort; it is supposed to be a corruption of "Thanes" Castle, and the remains are of such antiquity that there is no record of its erection, or destruction - at least so says the New Statistical account of Scotland; but at all events there is in existence the Royal warrant for its demolition during the occupation of James Stewart, dated 13th July 1592, at Peebles, when the fortalice was to be "cussen down to the ground". George Chalmers, in his Caledonia, says "it was the residence of the Tweedies who domineered there through ages of anarchy", and Chambers and Pennycuik both also state that Tinnies was originally the residence of the head of the clan Tweedie, Tradition names Udard, a second son of Gilbert Fraser of Neidpath, as its builder, some time in the 12th century; but whether he actually built the castle or merely repaired and strengthened it is doubtful. A great quantity of boar's tusks and of the bones of other animals has been dug out of the hill on which the ruins lie, and old John Fleming at Drummelzier says there were also human bones amongst the rubbish carted as manure for the Drummelzier Haugh field, and that the quantity of these was so great that the farmer had to have them buried in the churchyard. There is also an old legend of a secret passage between Tinnies and Drummelzier, as well as of a great cave close to the former castle, and the suggestion might be hazarded that it was a vault for sepulture, as evidenced by the bones. Udard, the possible builder of Tinnies, is sometimes spoken of as Udard the Dane, which may furnish a possible clue to the name as originally Danes Castle, hence Thanes and Tinnies. It must have been a place of greater strength than the ordinary feudal keeps in Peebleshire for the walls are two Scots' ells thick, and the cement as hard as the stone. It is said to have consisted of a quadrangular enclosing wall between 60 and 70 feet square, with round towers 18 feet in diameter at each angle. The tower at the northern angle was still standing in 1834 to the height of about 5 feet, and had three shot holes in it, and the foundation of the western tower was also then visible, while there were traces of the other two. The walls of the towers were about 4 feet thick and the "curtains" between them about 5 feet thick. The remains now consist of only a few broken but durable fragments of wall, and are reached by a zig-zag pathway up the steep bank which in the present day is reduced to the nature of a sheepwalk. The view from Tinnies Castle hill is one of the finest in the district.
Pennecuik, in his Tweeddale, and Chalmers, in his Caledonia, say that Neidpath Castle was also at one time a residence of the Tweedies, but if so it must have been in very early days. Neidpath occupies a striking situation on the north bank of the Tweed, at a distance of one mile westward from the town of Peebles, is backed with woody hills, has an open prospect to the east, and consists properly of two castles united. Originally the structure had consisted of a tall border tower or peel, each storey vaulted, and with a spiral stair communicating with the different floors. The south side of the ancient tower is entirely gone, leaving a series of vaulted floors one above the other, and the fallen wall lies in large fragments at the bottom of the cliff near the Tweed. When Tweedies had their abode at Neidpath, it must have been in the old peel and not in the castle as it now stands.
Far up the Tweed in the Parish of Tweedsmuir, almost opposite the church and adjoining the Beild, on a rocky shoulder of the hill, with an outlook eastwards over the valley, is the site of Oliver Castle, of which not a single fragment is now standing. Oliver was a very early possession of the family, and it is possible that here resided the ancestor who married Sir Simon Fraser's daughter, or grand-daughter, the heiress of Drummelzier. It must have been originally a very strong place both from its position and from its size, which is still apparent, although only an indistinct outline and a few stones are to be seen, while the site is covered by trees. The place is known locally as "The Leddy Knowe". Curiously enough no relic has been found about this site except a pair of thumbscrews, an instrument of torture used even as late as the times of the Covenanting persecution. It is more than likely that many of the stones were used to build the house of the Beild in 1726 and the new Oliver house in 1780.
Not far from the site of Oliver Castle, and on Over Oliver, stands the present house of Oliver surrounded by trees and gardens and overlooking the river. This house was built by Thomas Tweedie of Oliver, about the year 1780, to replace the old house, of which traces still remain in the ancient stones with the arms carved upon them built into the present buildings, and which are referred to by Stodart in his work Scottish Arms as bearing the dates 1649 and 1734. The building of this house was evidently going on in the year 1790, for it is mentioned in the correspondence that passed between Thomas Tweedie of Oliver and his son Adam Ewart Tweedie, and previously to this there is said to have been another Oliver house, on higher ground, but still on Over Oliver, probably built when Oliver Castle became no longer habitable. Near Oliver is the house of the Beild, which was built by James Tweedie of Oliver in 1726; over the door is the inscription J.T,. 1726, M.E. meaning James Tweedie and Margaret Ewart.
Drummelzier Castle, however as one of the homes of the family, rouses the chief interest, for it is here that the head of the family is found seated during the most prominent period of the family history.
Chalmers in his Caledonia says the singular name of Drummelzier (pronounced drummellier) arises from the ridge lying to the northern end of the parish, and it has been suggested that it means the ridge of Melzier, or Meldred, who is said by some to have been a great chief of the district, drum being the generic part of the word. Drym in British and drum in Irish both mean a ridge. The affix Melzier or Meldred, is not so easily explained, however, if it be not accepted as the name of a person; drum'eallur, in the Irish, would signify the ridge of earth or the earthen ridge; but the whole word is possibly the British Drym-Meillaur, meaning the dwelling on the ridge. The oldest form of this name which appears in writing is Drumedler. Fordun gives Dunmeller, melr being old Norse for bent grass, but this is probably an inaccuracy in the spelling.
Whatever may have been the date of the original building that stood upon the site of the peel of Drummelzier, the present Castle, commonly called Drummelzier Place, is considered by those qualified to judge to have been erected, or restored to its present form about the end of the 15th Century, very possibly in consequence of the various edicts issued about that time by the King, for the repairing and strengthening of all the Border fortresses. It stands upon a low rocky knoll close down upon the Tweed, and is shattered and ruined and much gone on the western side, but there is sufficient to show its original height and character. The angle tower and a portion of the main building alone now remain; the wing is vaulted and provided with shot holes, and each window is also furnished with a shot hole under the sill. By an inlet from the Tweed it could be surrounded with water. Chambers in his history of Peebleshire thinks that it probably suffered bombardment by the troops of the Commonwealth at the same time as Neidpath Castle, and remarks that its shattered side is towards the low hill of Rachan whence it could be attacked by cannon. Since its ruin, its stones have unfortunately been used for the farm steadings near, and it is a matter of regret that some effort could not be made to secure it from further dilapidation, for historically it possesses an interest equal to that of any ruin in the county. Seen from the bend of the Tweed, opposite the Castle, the view is very fine, reminding one very distinctly of the Rhine scenery. The Castle is discovered to sight from far down, and at that particular place, the Tweed has a most picturesque sweep.
On Fruid Water, one of the earliest tributaries of the Tweed, the name meaning the impulsive, or hasty water, far up in the wilds of the Parish of Tweedsmuir are the remains of Fruid Castle, constantly mentioned as one of the strongholds of the Tweedies. Little now remains of it, and that little is hidden in the trees surrounding the ancient site. It was once, no doubt, of considerable strength, partly on account of its position in the wild and inaccessible district where it stood. Traditionally it is said to have come into the family through the same alliance with the Frasers as brought in Drummelzier, but it is more likely that it came by the marriage that ensued from the feud with the Flemings in the 16th Century.
Fruid formed almost the last of the string of fortresses for common defence along the Tweed. It looked to the castle of Hawkshaw; Hawkshaw looked to Oliver Castle; Oliver to Polmood; Polmood to Kingledoors; Kingledoors to Stanhope; Stanhope to Mossfennan; Mossfennan to Wrae and Drummelzier; Drummelzier to Tinnies, Dreva, Lour, Dawyck, Stobo, and so on all the way up to the Mouth of the Tweed.
In the Parish of Glenholm in Peebleshire, a little South of Rachan and nearly opposite to Drummelzier Castle, overlooking the Tweed, is Wrae Castle, or rather the ruins of it, for it is reduced to a single fragment, which is striking from its strangely isolated condition. The sole remaining portion of the old feudal keep is the angle of the building, which had contained the stair and being additionally strong on this account, it has been more successful in defying the weather and time than the rest of the building. Wrae was for many years one of the strongholds of the family, and was usually occupied by a near relative of the head of the sept, and after the loss of Drummelzier castle, the representative of the Drummelzier line appears to have retired to this Tower.
On the face of the hill beyond the Stobo Slate Quarry, on the high ground overlooking the plain of Drummelzier, is Dreva, formerly one of the fortalices of the Tweedies. Of the peel itself, however, nothing remains, although near by is the British hill fort of Dreva Craig. It also was usually occupied by one of the near relatives of Tweedie of Drummelzier.
Another ancient residence of the family was the House of Halmyre in the parish of Newlands. It passed, however, out of the hands of the Tweedies in the first quarter of the 17th Century, on which occasion it will be remembered that certain members of the family attacked the newly installed owner with swords and the weapons and nearly killed him. The house stands on the banks of Lyne Water in a district which was originally a dismal swamp and, as Chambers says, evidently takes its name from the marshy character of the ground in which it was placed. The old house of Halmyre stood on a kind of slight eminence, and was a vaulted and defensible fortalice not easily assailed. The present building, which is the result of restoration in the middle of the nineteenth century, consists in the lower storey of two vaulted apartments, relics of the ancient feudal keep, which Pennecuik says was built by the "eminent and powerful Baron Tweedie of Drummelzier."
Kingledoors, now a farm house, lies at the junction of the Kingledoors Burn, with the Tweed, and opposite Stanhope, in the Parish of Drummelzier. In ancient times the upper part of the Strath of Kingledoors was noted for a chapel dedicated to St. Cuthbert, but this has long ago disappeared. There are many records of the occupation of Kingledoors by various members of the family. In old documents the place is usually described as Chapel Kingledoors, and near it stood another dwelling called Craig Kingledoors. The name is an excellent example of the Celtic original, cinn gill dor - "head of the clear water."
Patervan, sometimes spelled Putervan and Potervan, close to Kingledoors on the opposite side of the Tweed, was for many years the residence of generations of Tweedies.
Hearthstanes, in the parish of Tweedsmuir, was long occupied by Tweedies. In the extraordinary litigation which took place in the year 1780 about Polmood, a neighbouring property, Margaret Tweedie, "the guidwife of Hearthstane" is referred to as the niece of Uncle Robert Hunter, the owner of the wonderful dog Algiers; and when Uncle Robert grew old, the guid wife of Hearthstane took care of him until his death; Hearthstanes, or Hairstanes, as it is now called, was, until quite recently in the occupation of Alexander Gladstone Tweedie.32
Quarter, which stands in the parish of Glenholm, between Biggar Water and Holmes Water, came into the hands of the Tweedies about the year 1740, when it was acquired by Thomas Tweedie, the second son of the Thomas Tweedie of Oliver. Chambers says , "this may be called the beginning of a new branch of the Tweedies, who by descent claim to be representatives of the ancient Tweedies of Drummelzier". The house, which has been well restored, is a good example of its kind, with the curious turret so often seen in Scottish and French architecture.
Rachan House stands at the junction of the Holms Water and Biggar Water with the Tweed in the parish of Glenholm; the present residence was practically built by Thomas Stevenson Tweedie of Quarter, who acquired the property on his return from India, and the work was completed by his son, James Tweedie of Quarter and Rachan, with the result that it is now one of the finest places of its kind in the county, surrounded by large gardens and a fine park, with a picturesque lake in the grounds.
Many other places were also possessed or occupied by the family in Tweeddale, such as Whitslaid, Glenrath, Menzion, Hall Manor, and others which for long years at one time or another were connected with the family.
As has been elsewhere mentioned, a member of the family of the Drummelzier branch migrated to England and settled in Essex early in the 16th century. His actual relationship is not known, but he is referred to in the Herald's visitations for Essex as "George Tweedy who came out of Scotland of the house called Drummelzier"; his descendants lived at Boreham Stock Harvard cum Ramsden Bellhouse, and at Sampford Parva in the County of Essex, and later on an elder son John Tweedie, and his son, John Drummelzier Tweedie, were resident at Warley House, Halifax, in Yorkshire; they were both Justices of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenants for that County, and that branch expired in John Drummelzier Tweedie, who died without issue. A younger son, Colonel George Tweedy settled at Bromley, Kent, where the family has been resident ever since, and is now represented by Arthur Hearne Tweedy of Widmore Lodge, Widmore, Bromley, Kent; this family also owns the estate of The Hoo, Kempston, in Bedfordshire, with the manors of Kempston Greys, Hardwick and Hastingbury, as well as the house of Widmore House, Bromley, Kent, where they have long been resident, and which, strangely enough, was brought into the family by marriage with a Veitch, a descendant of the ancient enemies of the Tweedies in Tweeddale.
Early in the last century a new branch of the family was established at Rolvenden, in Kent, by the late Captain Michael Tweedie, R.A., the younger son of Alexander Tweedie of Quarter, to whom we have already referred. He married Frances, the heiress of Richard Walter Forbes of Rawlinson, in Rolvenden, in which estate he succeeded his father-in-law, and where his descendants have been settled ever since. The house there is of great age, and in the old great open fire-place there is a fine example of an iron fire-back of unusual size and strength, with fourteen coats of arms embossed upon it, and the date, 1603; a duplicate of it is also to be seen in one of the farm-houses belonging to the property, whilst another of the farm-houses on the estate is of some peculiar interest as a good example of a 15th century dwelling, with some curious stencillings of the period on the walls of some of the rooms.
The residence of the branch of the family settled in Ireland is Cloonamahon, co. Sligo, belonging to Henry Colpoys Tweedy. It was for many generations the home of his relations, the Merediths; their last representative was his wife, and on her death the property passed to him. The original house was situated in a hollow in the midst of the large old-fashioned garden, and was pulled down in the middle of the last century when the present house was built. It commands magnificent views of mountain and woodland scenery, embracing five counties ranging from the Donegal headlands in the north, through Leitrim, Sligo and Roscommon to the co. Cavan. The property is of moderate size, about 8oo statute acres, consisting chiefly of pasture lands and some fine old timber.
It is a far cry from Europe to New Brunswick, where, however, as before mentioned, a branch of the family is found seated; and we are enabled to give an illustration of "Elmshurst," the residence there of the Hon. L. J. Tweedie, to whom we have already referred. It is situate in the town of Chatham in Northumberland County and stands surrounded by elms in pleasant grounds stretching down to the Miramichi ("sparkling water") river. It is wood and brick built after the fashion of the country, and affords a good instance of the type of house built there in the early half of the last century.
It only now remains to take our leave, having brought the record down to a period within the memory of living persons. Although written for the members of the family, it is hoped that others will have also found an interest in this history of a typical Border family, and the picture of ancient Scottish Lowland life and character which it affords. We would also express the conviction that the family vigour and vitality which no doubt largely contributed to make the early history of the Tweedies so troubled and stormy, yet survives to sustain the family and keep the name to the front in the struggle for existence, which is no less keen at the present day than in ancient times, although the warfare is of a more peaceful character.
With this we thank the reader for his patience, if he be not long since out of it, and bid him farewell.
"One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: . . . the thing that hath been it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun".
With the kind permission of his descendants, this information is reproduced from the book privately published in 1902 by Michael Forbes Tweedie. This highly regarded book includes many references to the original sources of the information, extracts from parish registers and some detailed family trees.
Copies of the book are known to be in the British Library, Edinburgh Central Library and the New York Public Library.
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