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Borthwick Castle.

"Why sitt'st thou by that ruin'd hall, Thou aged carle, so stern and grey? Dost thou its former pride recall,

Or ponder why it pass'd away ?"

ANTIQUARY.

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Borthwick Castle.

BORTHWICK Castle is situated in the centre of a small but well cultivated valley, watered by one of the tributary streams to the South Esk, called the Gore. The fortress is composed of a massive double tower erected upon an insulated knoll, anciently termed the "Mote of Loch Wharet."*

The Castle of Borthwick is universally acknowledged to be the finest of that very numerous class of Castles we have described in the introduction as having been composed of a single donjon, or keep, surrounded by an embattled wall, and is much admired for the great beauty of its proportions, as well as the solidity of its workmanship This Castle was erected in 1430 by Sir William of Borth_ wick, and, contrary to the common usage, the fortress was called after his own name. In the same year, King James I. granted to him a special licence for erecting upon the spot called the "Mote of Lochwart," "a Castle of or fortalice;-to surround the same with walls and ditches, and to defend it with gates of brass or iron: and also to place upon the summit defensive ornaments, by which is meant battlements and turrets." He was farther empowered to place in the Castle so erected, a constable, porter, and other persons and things for the defence

* "Mote," or "Moat," one of those eminences which were used as places for dispensing justice in ancient times.

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