Biggar and the House of Fleming

572 BIGGAR AND THE HOUSE OF FLEMING.
lande, swore fealty to Edward I. The name of the proprietors
of Threpland was Brown, at least it was so in 1526. At a
short distance from the " onstead " of Threpland, at one time
stood a cottage or hamlet, called the Hole ayont Threpland,
which very probably was built by the company of Germans to
whom James V., in 1526, gave a grant of the precious mines
of Scotland for forty-three years. These individuals made
many excavations in our hills for the purpose of discovering
ores of lead, silver, or gold. A hole in the hillside, supposed
to be dug by them, can still be traced, and pieces of lead ore
are occasionally picked up. This place is referred to in a
rhyme, which, it is said, was composed by a vagrant, who had
been disappointed in obtaining an " awmous " at the different
farm-houses mentioned : —
" Glenkirk and Glencotho,
The Mains of Killbucko,
Blendewan and the Raw,
Mitchelhill and the Shaw,
The hole ayont the Threpland
Wad had them a'."
MENZIES OF COULTER.
One half of the lands of Coulter, at an early period, belonged
to a family of the name of Bisset. It then passed in succession
into the hands of the Newbiggings and Douglases. The other
half was long the patrimony of a family named Menzies. In
the year 1385, Robert Maynheis obtained a charter from
Robert II. of half of the barony of Coulter, which his father
John had resigned. It is interesting to note that David
Menyheis, one of the members of his family, granted, in 1431,
his part of the lands of Wolchclide " in frankalmoigne " to
the monks of Melrose. At the Reformation, this and other
possessions of the monks were conferred on Sir Thomas Hamil-
ton of Byres, in Haddingtonshire, who, in 1619, was raised to
the peerage by the title of Earl of Melrose, but who shortly
afterwards was allowed to change this title for that of the Earl
of Haddington. In 1645, John, the fourth Earl of Hadding-
ton, was returned heir of the demesne lands of Melrose, com-
prehending among others, those of Wolfclyde. The farm of
Wolfclyde appears to have been, at a subsequent period, the