feir of weir 2'—the lady included-came to the commontie of the burgh called Kaidmuir, whair some of the inhabitants were occupied in their lauchful affairs, upon their awin heritage, and thair threatened them with death gif they did not quit the ground.' The defenders not appearing are denounced rebels. This seems to have been the last attempt on Cademuir by any one of the name of Gledstanes. It was reserved for a later time to see this old burgh possession swallowed up in the properties of neighbouring lairds. While it was held directly by the burgh, and only let out to tenants, it continued safe. But when the council embarked on the hazardous policy of giving rights of tenure and alienation to the burgesses, these proprietors readily became an easy prey in succession to the grasping neighbouring lairds; and now Cademuir, and the Strouthir, and Whitehaugh, and Eschiels, and Glentress, and many other fair lands have passed away for ever from the common good of the burgh. Gledstanes of that ilk seems to have parted with his property in Lanarkshire shortly before Hundleshope passed to the Scots-a branch of the house of Thirlestane. There was, however, in the immediate neighbourhood of the original lands another estate, though a small one, which had belonged to the Gledstanes from an early period; this was Arthurshiel. It lies to the west of the Gledstanes, nearer to Tinto, and is divided from them by White Castle, an old historic estate. This property was held in succession by members of the family till towards the close of the eighteenth century, when the son of the last Gledstanes of Arthurshiel removed to the neighbouring town of Biggar, and commenced business there as a maltman, then a flourishing trade in the town. This was William Gledstanes. He died in 1728, and was interred in the old family burying-ground in Liberton churchyard-the last earthly link of the Gledstanes with the old race whence they had sprung. John Gledstanes, the eldest son of William Gledstanes, and grandson of the last laird of Arthurshiel, was born about 1693. He succeeded his father in the business of maltman; and his name appears as a witness on a legal document of 1730 as John Gladstones, maltman and burgess in Biggar.' He was also keeper of the baron's girnal, or storehouse of the rents in kind, paid by tenants to the Lords Fleming, now Earls of Wigton. He died in 1756, leaving five sons and six daughters. Of these Thomas, the fourth son, left Biggar, and settled in Leith as a corn merchant. His son John went to Liverpool, engaged in the West India trade, and acquired a large fortune. He purchased the estate of Fasque, and was created a baronet in 1846.3 Thomas his son succeeded him. Once again, then, after many vicissitudes of fortune, the old name of Gledstanes, somewhat modified and clipped, but by no means improved, has taken its place among landit men -the greatest social distinction even in 2 Equipped in war array. means inconsiderable. The rights of the burgh to the hill were again, for purpose of greater security, fully confirmed by charter of James IV. (July 24, 1506). Next year (January 2, 1506-7) appeared at Peebles most of those who had been Gledstanes' tenants, dwellers near the marches of Cademuir, and acknowledged their wrong-doing in occupying the lands, and declared they would in time coming cease to do so. But John of Gledstanes of Coklaw-for this he is named, as well as of that Ilk-was a persistent man. Twelve years after the first troubling of the burgh 'in the brooking of their lands of Cademuir,' he was at the business again. The Governor of Scotland was out of the country, and there was general insecurity. This was John's opportunity. Accordingly, on the Sunday before June 8, 1518, 'the said Johne' sent his household men and servants, and cruelly dang and hurt thair [the burgh's] hirdis and servants, that were kepand thair corne and gudis within thair said propir lands, and left twa of them liand on the field for deid, and houndit thair cattale furth of their awne grund.' And what is worse, when in the afternoon of the same Sunday the Peebles folk came up to the hill to look after their wounded servants, John, 'perseverand in his evill mynd, send furth Johne of Gledstanes his nevoy and apperand air, Archibald Gledstanes, his sone, and others to the number of twenty-six men,' attacked and chased the burghers off their own ground. This feud of the Gledstanes with the burghers of Peebles continued for many years, and was marked by such atrocities as at length roused their peaceful neighbours to judicial action against them. In 1561 we find John Gledstanes, of Coklaw, dilatit for the slaughter of umquhile Thomas Peblis and William Bell,' before the Lords of Council. But nothing came of the business-either punishment for the crime, or compensation to the relatives of the murdered men; and the terror of the Gledstanes lay so heavily upon the burgesses of Peebles that the lands of Cademuir were left waste and untilled for some years. The impotency of law and the power of the individual in these terrible times. could not receive a stronger illustration than in such a fact as this. Forty years afterwards the descendants of the murdered man are found still pursuing the family of the Gledstanes for redress, but without success. The murder was not disputed, the simple question was as to compensation to relatives; and even of this they got nothing. The usual barren phrase was sureties to satisfy parties for the slaughter of the said umquhile Thomas Peiblis.' Such was the state of Scotland even after the union of the crowns. 6 This desire for getting hold of Cademuir seems to have been hereditary with the Gledstanes, to have continued after they had parted with Hundleshope, and to have extended even to the ladies of the family. For we find in 1620 (March 30) that the provost and bailies of the burgh of Peebles complain that on the 10th inst. Beatrix Ker Lady Gladstanes, William, Robert, and James, her sons, Robert Dickson in Hundelshope, Alexander Melrose there, and William Ker, plowman there, with about ten other persons, feir of weir 22. -the lady included-came to 'the commontie of the burgh called Kaidmuir, whair some of the inhabitants were occupied in their lauchful affairs, upon their awin heritage, and thair threatened them with death gif they did not quit the ground.' The defenders not appearing are denounced rebels. This seems to have been the last attempt on Cademuir by any one of the name of Gledstanes. It was reserved for a later time to see this old burgh possession swallowed up in the properties of neighbouring lairds. While it was held directly by the burgh, and only let out to tenants, it continued safe. But when the council embarked on the hazardous policy of giving rights of tenure and alienation to the burgesses, these proprietors readily became an easy prey in succession to the grasping neighbouring lairds; and now Cademuir, and the Strouthir, and Whitehaugh, and Eschiels, and Glentress, and many other fair lands have passed away for ever from the common good of the burgh. Gledstanes of that ilk seems to have parted with his property in Lanarkshire shortly before Hundleshope passed to the Scots-a branch of the house of Thirlestane. There was, however, in the immediate neighbourhood of the original lands another estate, though a small one, which had belonged to the Gledstanes from an early period; this was Arthurshiel. It lies to the west of the Gledstanes, nearer to Tinto, and is divided from them by White Castle, an old historic estate. This property was held in succession by members of the family till towards the close of the eighteenth century, when the son of the last Gledstanes of Arthurshiel removed to the neighbouring town of Biggar, and commenced business there as a maltman, then a flourishing trade in the town. This was William Gledstanes. He died in 1728, and was interred in the old family burying-ground in Liberton churchyard-the last earthly link of the Gledstanes with the old race whence they had sprung. John Gledstanes, the eldest son of William Gledstanes, and grandson of the last laird of Arthurshiel, was born about 1693. He succeeded his father in the business of maltman; and his name appears as a witness on a legal document of 1730 as 'John Gladstones, maltman and burgess in Biggar.' He was also keeper of the baron's girnal, or storehouse of the rents in kind, paid by tenants to the Lords Fleming, now Earls of Wigton. He died in 1756, leaving five sons and six daughters. Of these Thomas, the fourth son, left Biggar, and settled in Leith as a corn merchant. His son John went to Liverpool, engaged in the West India trade, and acquired a large fortune. He purchased the estate of Fasque, and was created a baronet in 1846.3 Thomas his son succeeded him. Once again, then, after many vicissitudes of fortune, the old name of Gledstanes, somewhat modified and clipped, but by no means improved, has taken its place among landit men'-the greatest social distinction even in 2 Equipped in war array. Radical Scotland. The brother of Sir Thomas, and third son of Sir John, is William Ewart Gladstone, of whom it may be said, that besides doing all that the scholar does in the study, he is still foremost in energy among energetic statesmen, and unsurpassed, if indeed equalled, by any living orator in the marvellous spontaneity of noble thought and burning word. It is but a few weeks ago since Mr. Gladstone made a short visitto the Border Country, passing along the line of railway from Edinburgh to Peebles, There he spoke a few words to an eager gathering. He said it was a fair land which he looked upon, and he added that the trampling on the political birthright of the people of the district, persistently done there, was not congruous with the natural beauty which he saw. He was probably not aware that the locality and surrounding scenes, though new to himself, were the familiar places of his forefathers. Within a mile of where he stood lay Winkston, Mailingsland, Acolmfield, his ancestral lands; and while addressing his audience his eye might have rested on the heights of Hundleshope, the old Turnbull and Gledstanes hills. Had this occurred to him, an historic touch would certainly have lent a thrill of more than usual ardour even to his impassioned speech. Mr. Gladstone vindicating citizen rights, and generally quickening the moral sense of the country by his persuasive appeals, is a marked contrast to the Gledstanes of the sixteenth century and their doings on Tweedside. But we cannot help thinking that the strong spirit of the old Borderer is in the modern type of the nineteenth century, only inspiring and sustaining a nobler purpose, and working by different and higher ways. The eminent statesman sometimes speaks of there being only Scottish blood in his veins; he may even say that he has the blood, in a long and continuous stream, of the old Scottish Borderer; and therein has always lain an intense fervour-perhaps the truest perfervid genius of the Scot-not unattended by a fine chivalry, a resolute independence, and a noble daring. This nature has never had much sense of compromise; it has been accustomed to straight aim and effort, to a grand self-reliance; and this joined, or rather subordinated, to a burning moral purpose, may explain the fervour— the attraction to some, and the repulsion to others- of the career of a great modern statesman. J. VEITCH. DIAMONDS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL. a HE Diamond has many histories. It has a chemical and a commercial, a mineralogical and a mystical history. It has what may be called a personal history, comprising the varied adventures of individual stones; there is a history of diamond cutting and counterfeiting, of diamond discoveries and diamond robberies, and there promises soon to be a history of diamond manufacture. The earliest known home of the gem was in India. From India it made its way westward to the Greeks, who, among its many remarkable qualities, singled out its pre-eminent hardness as that by which it was thenceforward to be distinguished when known, and detected when doubtful. They named it adamas,' the indomitable, and invented fables in illustration of this character, which passed current and unquestioned for many hundreds of years. Such was the obduracy of the genuine diamond, they maintained, that the attempt to break it between hammer and anvil resulted, not in the fracture of the stone, but in the rending of the metal; and numerous gems of the purest water were immolated, generation after generation, to the blind tradition of this perilous ordeal by iron. There was, indeed, it was added, one method by which this otherwise invincible resistance could be overcome. Immersion for a certain time in warm goat's blood rendered the crystal amenable to the blows of the hammer, although even then, like the Calydonian hero at the siege of Thebes, it contrived to involve its sturdy adversary in its own destruction. 'Only a god,' Pliny exclaims in a pious rapture, could have revealed such a valuable secret to men!' 6 Now the truth is, that the diamond, although the hardest of known substances, is also one of the most brittle, since it possesses a natural cleavage along which it splits with the utmost facility. When the Koh-i-noor was being recut, in 1852, the jeweller to whose care it was entrusted during the operation, submitted it to the inspection of one of his most valued customers, who heedlessly let it slip through his fingers. The jeweller, seeing it fall, all but lost his senses with terror, and called forth a similar access of retrospective dismay in his distinguished visitor, by explaining that if the jewel had touched the ground at a certain angle, it would almost infallibly have separated into two fragments, and thus have finally terminated its notable career as a Mountain of Light.' The extreme difficulty of polishing the diamond caused it, in early times, to be sought after as an amulet rather than as an orna The form diamas occurs in Albertus Magnus, and other writers of the thirteenth century. Pinder, De Adamante. |