Scotland/Scots > Wilson's tales of the Borders and of Scotland > Volume 3

THE HEIRESS OF CASTLE GOWER,
93
GEORDIE WILLISON,
AND THE HEIRESS OF CASTLE GOWEB.
Antiquaries know very well that one of the oldest of the
Nova Scotia knights, belonging to Scotland, was Sir Mar-
maduke Maitland of Castle Gower, situated in one of the
southern counties of the kingdom ; but they may not know
so well that Sir Marmaduke held his property under a strict
entail to heirs male, whom failing, to heirs female, under
the condition of bearing the arms and name of the Castle
Gower family; or that he was married to Catherine Max¬
well, a near relative of the family of Herries, in the Stew-
artry of Kirkcudbright—a person of no very great beauty,
but sprightly, and of good manners. This woman had been
brought up in France, and was deeply tinged with French
feelings. She had French cooks and French milliners about
her in abundance; and a French lackey was considered by
her as indispensable as meat and drink. Then she was
represented as being a proud, imperious woman, with a
bad temper; which was rendered worse by her continued
fretting, in consequence of not having any children to her
husband; whereby the property would go away to a son
of her husband’s brother. Sir Marmaduke and his lady had
a town-house in Edinburgh, in which they lived for the
greater part of the year, situated so as to look to the North
Back of the Canongate, and with an entry to it from that
street, but the principal gate was from the north
side. A garden was attached to the house; and the
stables and coach-houses were situated at the foot of the