Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

ROX
624
RUB
Britons, and intended by them as barriers against
Saxon invasion. British strengths occur in various lo-
calities. The most stupendous work of the Britons
was the Catrail ; and the most interesting Roman
remain is the great road called Watling-streeT : see
these articles. A Roman road, bearing the modern
name of the Wheel Causeway, possibly went off from
Watling-street to traverse Upper Teviotdale, and, at
all events, traversed the north-east corner of Liddes-
dale, and left Scotland at Dead water to pass on,
under the modern name of the Maidenway, through
Severus' wall, to the Maiden-castle on Stanmore, in
Westmoreland. — The most ancient remains of the
Saxons are the religious or Culdean-house of Old
Melrose, or rather its successor, Red-abbey near
Newstead ; and the church of Old Jedburgh, found-
ed in the 9th century, by Bishop Eccrede. But the
early Saxons of this shire have transmitted to pos-
terity very scanty monuments of their civil polity,
and still scantier of their military actions. Few of
the castles which exist in ruin and nod to the ground,
and which are regarded by superficial inquirers as the
only objects of antiquarian research, belong to either
a high or an interesting antiquity. They were all
erected on homogeneous plans, with similar mate-
rials, and with a view to security rather than to
comfort, — built of " lyme and starve," after the ac-
cession of Bruce, during ages of civil anarchy and
wasteful wars ; and, whether larger or less, may,
when compared with British forts and Roman sta-
tions, and ancient ways, be considered as modern
antiquities, the wonders of ignorance, rather than
the curiosities of knowledge. The earliest and most
interesting castles are those, respectively quite ex-
tinct, and only vestigeable, of Jedburgh and Rox-
burgh. The next in antiquity are the extinct one
of Clintwood, which imposed first on the neighbour-
ing village, and next on all Liddesdale, the name of
Castletown ; and the surviving, conservated, and
partly modernized one of Hermitage Peel-houses
succeeded ; but, excepting that of Hudhouse, they
all lie in the ruins of time. Strongholds of more
modern erection, and more dignified cast, figured in
the Border conflicts, and were the scenes of coarse
hilarity, and rude, and often lawless enterprise ; yet,
unless when poetry has painted them on the slides of
its magic lantern, and flung over them airs and tints
of witchery, they rarely possess any interesting as-
sociation. Impervious fastnesses lined the strong
banks of Oxnam-water, and furnished a place of ren-
dezvous for the Border-warrior when menaced by
the English foemen ; and, as they aggregately bore
the name of Henwood, they gave rise to the war-
cry, " A Hen woody ' a Henwoody!" which made
every heart burn with ardour, every hand grasp a
weapon, and every foot hasten to the rendezvous.*
So early as the -commencement of the Scoto-Saxon
period, and up to the disastrous date of the Maid of
Norway's death, Roxburgh was a sheriffdom. Ed-
ward I., after he had by intrigue and violence ob-
tained direct dominion over Scotland, seems to have
considered this frontier county as his own; and,
when he settled the affairs of the kingdom, by his
famous ordinance of 1305, he appointed — as we have !
seen — a custodier of the castles of Roxburgh and
i
* The strengths, more or lesB entire, which now bear the
name of Peels, are firaden, Harden, Prickitighaugli, White-
haugh, Hillhouse, Riecarton, Mangerton, Puddin^buru, and
some others. Those which bear the name of Towers, are
Moss, Woodden, Ormiston, Gateshaw, Dolphinston, Mos*-
bnriiford, Crag-Loch, Newton, Fulton, Minto, Haasendean,
Nisbet, Roxburgh, Brotnhouse, Littledean, Darnick, Calms-
lee, and SmailhoTm ; and those which bear the name of Castles,
are Roxburgh, Hermitage, Cessford, Eckford, Whitton,
Cocklaw, Crailing, Bonjedvvorth, Edgarston, Feruihirnt, Bed-
rule, Rew, Comers, Fast, Caatleweary, Goldielaud, Braux-
Iiulm, and Halydean,
Jedburgh, and governor, by military regime, of the
whole shire. As soon as the genius of Bruce had
achieved the kingdom's independence, Roxburghshire
began to enjoy for a short period its ancient policy of
peaceful times; but, after the demise of that great
prince, it was claimed in sovereignty by the English
kings, and suffered no little anarchy from their col-
lisions with the Scottish crown. In 133-1, a sheriff
was set over it by Edward III., and soon after an
antagonist sheriff was appointed by David II. ; and,
during the revolutions of that age, sheriffs continued
to be conflictingly, or alternately, appointed by the
respective monarchs according to the fluctuations and
the replacements of their power. During all the pe-
riod of David's captivity, Edward III. nominated she-
riffs, and governed as he pleased. As the shire, with
the exception of Roxburgh-castle, was freed from the
yoke of foreign thraldom chiefly by the exertions of
the Douglasses, it afterwards, as to its sheriffship or
administration, generally followed their fortunes. In
1398 the sheriffship of the county and the lands of
Cavers were granted to George, Earl of Angus, who
died in 1402; and having passed tolsobel, Countess
of Mar, they were, without the necessary consent of
the King, transferred by her to the Earl of Douglas,
who was then a prisoner in England. Robert III.,
conceiving that they had become escheated by being
disposed of without his consent, and willing to be-
stow them as a reward for services, conferred them,
in 1405, on Sir David Fleming of Biggar. But James
Douglas of Balveny, the second son of the Earl
Douglas, soon after assassinated the new sheriff ; and
paved the way, amidst the afflictions of the King,
and the subsequent misrule of the Duke of Albany,
for the Douglasses to domineer over the county with
the utmost freedom from control. The sheriffship
of the county was now, with the lands of Cavers,
transferred to Archibald, a bastard son of James, the
second Earl of Douglas ; and it continued in his fa-
mily, though probably with some interruptions, till
the date of the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions.
Archibald Douglas, brother of Douglas of Cavers,
claimed, in 1747, a compensation of ±'10,000 for the
sheriffship, and was allowed £1,666 13s. 4d.
ROY (The), a small river in the parish of Kil-
manivaig, Lochaber, Inverness-shire. It rises on
the frontier of Lochaber, at a point where that dis-
trict meets Badenoch and Stratherrick, 5 miles east
of the sound end of Loch-Oieh ; and it runs 1 6 miles
south-westward to the Spean, near the house of
Keppoch. Over most of its course it runs parallel
with Loch-Lochy, or the line of the Caledonian
canal, at 4 or 5 miles' distance. The vale which it
traverses takes from it the name of Glenroy, and is
well-known to fame for its geognostic phenomena
called 'parallel roads:' See G:l£NROY. A rising
ground, which bears the name of Mulroy, and is
situated near the mouth of the stream, claims to he
the last recorded feudal battle-field in Scotland.
The laird of Mackintosh, having been refused some
demands which he made on the Macdonnels of Kep-
poch as his tenants, marched at the head of his vas-
sals to enforce compliance within their own terri-
tory; but he was stubbornly confronted on Mulroy,
and, after a stiff action, was beaten and captured.
RUBERSLAW, a long, rugged, and peaked
hill near the centre of Teviotdale, Roxburghshire.
It is so situated as to belong to all the three parishes
of Hobkirk, Cavers, and Kirkton. Its range, in
elongation, is from south-south-west to north-north-
east; and its greatest altitude above sea-level is
1,420 feet. Though rearing its bulk m a rather
boldly tumulated region, it forms, through wide
openings of the general landscape, a conspicuous,
far-seen, and arresting object. It has a bleak antl