Principal Cairns | Page 4

swey from which hung the large pot with its
rudimentary feet, and, in some cases, even the window, were the
property of the immigrants, and were carried about by them from farm
to farm in their successive flirtings.
When at Whiterigg, the children attended school at Ayton, and here
young John learned his letters and made considerable progress in
reading. After two years, the death of the Whiterigg farmer made
another change necessary, and the family returned to the Dunglass
estate and settled at Aikieside, a forester's cottage quite near to their
former home at Oldcambus Mains, and within easy reach of Oldcambus
School. Aikieside is in the Pease Dean, a magnificent wooded glen,
crossed a little lower down by a famous bridge which carries the old
post road from Edinburgh to Berwick over the Pease Burn at a height
of nearly one hundred and thirty feet. A still older road crosses the
stream close to its mouth, less than a mile below the bridge. The
descent here is very steep on both sides, but it seems to have been even
steeper in former times than it is now. This point in the old road is "the
strait Pass at Copperspath," where Oliver Cromwell before the battle of
Dunbar found the way to Berwick blocked by the troops of General
Leslie, and of which he said that here "ten men to hinder are better than
forty to make their way."
Beautiful as the Pease Dean is, it has this drawback for those who live
in the vicinity--especially if they happen to be anxious mothers--that it
is infested with adders; and as these engaging reptiles were specially
numerous and specially aggressive in the "dry year" 1826, it is not
surprising that when, owing to the cottage at Aikieside being otherwise
required, John Cairns was offered a house in the village of
Cockburnspath, he and his wife gladly availed themselves of that offer.
From Cockburnspath another removal was made in the following year
to Dunglass Mill; and at last, in 1831, the much travelled family, now
increased to eight, found rest in a house within the Dunglass grounds,
after the father had received the appointment of shepherd on the
home-farm, which he held during the rest of his life.

CHAPTER II
DUNGLASS
The Lammermoor range, that "dusky continent of barren heath-hills,"
as Thomas Carlyle calls it, runs down into the sea at St. Abb's Head.
For the greater part of its length it divides Berwickshire from East
Lothian; but at its seaward end there is one Berwickshire parish lying to
the north of it--the parish of Cockburnspath. The land in this parish
slopes down to the Firth of Forth; it is rich and well cultivated, and is
divided into large farms, each of which has its group of red-roofed
buildings, its substantial farmhouse, and its long tail of hinds' cottages.
The seaward views are very fine, and include the whole of the rugged
line of coast from Fast Castle on the east to Tantallon and North
Berwick Law on the west. In the middle distance are the tower of
Dunbar Church, the Bass Rock, and the Isle of May; and farther off is
the coast of Fife, with Largo Law and the Lomonds in the background.
The land is mostly bare of trees, but there is a notable exception to this
in the profound ravines which come down from the hills to the sea, and
whose banks are thickly clothed with fine natural wood.
Of these, the Pease Dean has already been mentioned. Close beside it is
the Tower Dean, so called from an ancient fortalice of the Home family
which once defended it, and which stands beside a bridge held in just
execration by all cyclists on the Great North Road. But, unquestionably,
the finest of all the ravines in these parts is Dunglass Dean, which
forms the western boundary of Cockburnspath parish, and divides
Berwickshire from East Lothian. From the bridge by which the
Edinburgh and Berwick road crosses the dean, at the height of one
hundred feet above the bed of the stream, the view in both directions is
extremely fine. About a hundred and fifty yards lower down is the
modern railway bridge, which spans the ravine in one gigantic arch
forty feet higher than the older structure that carries the road; and
through this arch, above the trees which fill the glen, one gets a
beautiful glimpse of the sea about half a mile away.
Above the road-bridge, and to the right of the wooded dean, are the

noble trees and parks of Dunglass grounds. The mansion-house, a
handsome modern building, part of which rises to a height of five
storeys, is built only some eight or ten feet from the brink of the dean,
on its western or