" He also gave, to the same
convent, "_Omnes terras, quas Walterus de Giling tenuit in feodo suo
de Thirlestane, et pastura incommuni de Thirlestane, ad quadraginta
oves, sexaginta vaccas, et ad viginti equos_."--Cartulary of Dryburgh
Abbey, in the Advocates' Library.
[Footnote 84: There exists also an indenture, or bond, entered into by
Patrick, abbot of Kelsau, and his convent, referring to an engagement
betwixt them and Sir Richard Maitland, and Sir William, his eldest
son, concerning the lands of Hedderwicke, and the pasturages of
Thirlestane and Blythe. This Patrick was abbot of Kelso, betwixt 1258
and 1260.]
From the following ballad, and from the family traditions referred to
in the Maitland MSS., Auld Maitland appears to have had three sons;
but we learn, from the latter authority, that only one survived
him, who was thence surnamed _Burd alane_, which signifies either
_unequalled_, or _solitary_. A _Consolation_, addressed to Sir Richard
Maitland of Lethington, a poet and scholar who flourished about the
middle of the sixteenth century, and who gives name to the Maitland
MSS., draws the following parallel betwixt his domestic misfortunes
and those of the first Sir Richard, his great ancestor:
Sic destanie and derfe devoring deid
Oft his own hous in hazard put of auld;
Bot your forbeiris, frovard fortounes steid
And bitter blastes, ay buir with breistis bauld;
Luit wanweirdis work and walter ay they wald,
Thair hardie hairtis hawtie and heroik,
For fortounes feid or force wald never fauld;
Bot stormis withstand with stomak stoat and stoik.
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