NEIDPATH CASTLE.
Neidpath Castle, however, has pleasanter associations with the bards. From the southern branch of the Frasers it passed to the Hays of Yester; and to the ninth lord of Yester, first Marquis of Tweeddale, is credited the earliest surviving lyric inspired by the Tweed. Here are two of the verses:—
“When Maggie and me were acquaint
I carried my noddle fu’ high;
Nae lint-white in a’ the grey plain,
Nae gowdspink sae bonny as she.
“I whistled, I piped, and I sang,
I woo’d, but I came nae great speed;
Therefore I maun wander abroad,
And lay my banes far frae the Tweed.”