an act of cruel injustice incurred its own punishment, for a prophetic
rhyme was about the same period made on it, by whom nobody could tell,
and which, says James Hogg, writing in the year 1826, has been most
wonderfully verified:

Ettrick Hall stands on yon plain,
Right sore exposed to wind and rain;
And on it the sun shines never at morn,
Because it was built in the widow's corn;
And its foundations can never be sure,
Because it was built on the ruin of the poor.
And or an age is come and gane,
Or the trees o'er the chimly-taps grow green,
We kinna wen where the house has been.

The curse that alighted on this fair mansion at length accomplished
its destructive work, because nowadays there is not a vestige of it
remaining, nor has there been for these many years; indeed, so
complete was the collapse of this ill-fated house, that its site could
only be identified by the avenue and lanes of trees; while many clay
cottages, on the other hand, which were built previously, long
remained intact. Equally fatal, also, was the curse uttered against
the old persecuting family of Home of Cowdenknowes--a place in the
immediate neighbourhood of St. Thomas's Castle.

Vengeance, vengeance! When and where?
Upon the house of Cowdenknowes, now and evermair!

This anathema, awful as the cry of blood, is generally said to have
been realised in the extinction of the family and the transference of