to starve to death. Local tradition says that he extended his agony for some days by eating seventeen ears of corn which had fallen through cracks in the floor of the corn loft above his cell. The exactness of the number of ears of corn should make us a bit sceptical of this story and the fact that the room above was actually a guard room should make us even more doubtful of its accuracy. Sir William was too powerful for the king to bring to justice and no doubt such acts seem more horrific to our sensibilities than they would have been to those of a more violent age. More serious in the eyes of the crown was that the noble knight was again plotting with the English. This time he was going to allow them free passage through Liddesdale to invade Scotland. In 1352 he was murdered by his nephew while out hunting in the Ettrick forest. The nephew was granted Liddesdale by a grateful monarch and subsequently became the first Earl of Douglas. He had to wait awhile before he would enjoy the fruits of his murderous assignment in the Ettrick Forest. The widow of the Knight of Liddesdale appealed to Edward the Third of England who was trying to consolidate his hold over southern Scotland; loyalty to the Scottish throne was not as strong as self interest as a motivating factor among the Border nobility. Edward the Third granted her claim to Hermitage on condition that she married an Englishman. Thus encouraged, she promptly married Lord Dacre who seized Hermitage was during this period of English occupation that the oldest surviving pans of the castle were constructed along the lines of an English fortified house. The castle was eventually recaptured by the Douglases and held by them until 1491. The castle was further strengthened and extended during this time taking on the aspects with which we are familiar to day. The strategic significance of Hermitage in these

James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell

turbulent times was emphasized when a holder, Earl Archibald, was suspected of treasonable correspondence with the English and removed from his post. He could not have helped his case much when he murdered Patrick Spens of Kilspindie, a favorite of the king. Hermitage thus came into the possession of Patrick Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. This Earl proved to be equally suspect in his dealings with England, in 1538 the castle was taken over by the crown and made the principal seat of the Warden of Liddesdale with a standing garrison of one hundred men.

It is hardly surprising that the people of Liddesdale should have developed a reputation for thievery and savagery given their geographical situation and the examples set by their lords and masters. Liddesdale attracted outlaws, criminals and other “broken men”. To a people brutalised by violence, cattle rustling,