The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-16 00:00:00

Visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales
to ltoxburghshire.

KELSO, Sat u rday.
For some months past the Prince and Princess of Wales
have been expected to honour Rexburglashire with a visit,
having received an accepted and invitation from the Duke
and Duchess of Roxburghe to stay a few days at their
palatial residence of Floors Castle, near Kelso. In accord-
ance with pre-vious areangement, their Royal Hielnesses
will arrive at Floors on Tuesday next, and they have inti-
mated their intention of attending the Kelso race-meeting
on the following Wednesday and Thursday. Tho ducal
family have been honoured on two former occasions-with
a visit from Prince Alined, who then enjoyed some excel-
lent fishing on the Tweed; and it is said that the Duke
contemplates initiating the heir-apparent to the throne into
the mysteries of salmon-fishiugs The enthusiasm of the
Borderers shows their high appreciation of the honour
conferred upon them by their distinguished visitors. In
the times when the Kers, the Scots, the Dougiases, the
Elliots, and the Armstrongs rejoiced in their raids upon
offending- or prosperous neighbours, or patrioticaily united
in repelling an incursion of the "hated Southrons," the
presence of royalty in Tweedside and the adjacent country
was not so rare an event as now, nor sornetimes, we may
add, so agreeable. Witness the Laird ol Hende-land as he
swung be:ore his own castle-gate by the peremptcey order
of his incensed monarch, James V. But tempera mutantur,
the advent of royal: y to this district cores now as a luxury,
and the preparations being made in Kelso and the neigh-
bouring towns to give the Pelnee and Princess a suitable
welcome, show that their arrival will be masked as a red-
le: ter day in the Border calendar. Kelso has called in the aid
of art to add to and enhance its many natural attractions;
I:duel/ph:l arches, decorations, have been speedily
subscribed for, and are being busily erected; hoHdays have
been promulgated by the town au: beetles ; while hotel-
keepers and others posseeted of letable apartments tell, in
their own cautious, self-complacent way, how they have,
Without difficulty, di awn on the pockets of intending visi-
tors dining the race days to the time of a " gowden guinea"
or two, in exchange for a single nigtat's accmrmodation.
It may not, therefore, be out of piece to give some descrip-
tion of this interesting and picturesque locality, -noticing
a few particulars in the history of the family whose guests
the Prince and Psincess are so soon to become. It is a
difficult matter to determine the founder of the ducal house
of Roabu •-g he. On the Innes's side it is said that the pre-
sent Duke is the 30th in descent from Berowaldus, a famous
Fleming who settled in Moray about the 12th century,
while t :e mire of Ker is said to have been bolas by one of
the principal officers of William the Conquir. or. The peer-
age writers, howeves, give John Ker, of the Forest of Sel-
ho lived about 1358, as the founder of the house of
Cessfosd and Roxburghe. Ever since the 14th century the
family of Ker has occupied a psomineet place in the history
of Scotland. As wardens of the midd'e and eastern marches,
and having their baronies in the debateable borderland
between England and Scotland, they, with the Scotts and
Douglrnes, were the chief actors in those raids, fire-sais-
jogs; and conflicts which had so much of the romantic in
their nature that their history has been recorded in ballads
and songs. The first of the family raised to the peerage
was Sir Robert Ker, of Cessford, by the title of Earl
Roxburghe. He was Gentleman of the LedchambestoJarees
VI., cad in 1606, seven years after his first creation, he
was made Baron Ker. Having no male heir, he in 1648,
by charter from the crown, nominated Sr. William Drum-
mond, son of his daughter Jean, Countess of Perth, hisheir,
and at his death Sir William succeeded to the title. Earl
William was distinguished for his military genius in Hol-
land, and for his strong attachment to the Royalist cause
was fined £6,000 by Cromwell. His son John, for his ser-
vices in bringing about the Union, was created Duke of
Roxburghe by Queen Anne. A writer of his time de-
scribes him "as an honour of his country abroad, the or-
nament of the court at home ; a prince of great learning,
as well as a fine gentleman ; was Secretary of State to
Queen Anne, and continues the same to King George."
Robert, his son and successor, never married. He had
wooed and would have been married to Christina Sophia,
daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, had not
her younger sister, the Princess Charlotte, been espoused
to George 111., and it was thought not proper that the
elder sister should be the subject of the younger. On the
demise of William, the fourth Duke, in 1805, without issue,
a long litigation ensued between two claimants for the
honours and estates in the persons of Sir James Norcliffe
Innes and Brigadier-General Ker of Littledean, and not
until 1812 did the law decide in Sir James's favour. He
assumed the name of Ker, and had been married in 1807
to Harriet, daughter of Benjamin Charleswood of Windles-
ham. He died in 1823, leaving issue the present duke,
who was born in July, 1816, and who married the
daughter of General Sir Charles Dalbiac, G.C.B. Her
grace's mother is mentioned in Napier's "Peninsular
War" for her heroic conduct in fearlessly attending her
husband through the dangers and privations of two cam-
paigns. The duchess, as one of the ladies in waiting on
the Queen, recently accompanied her Majesty to Germany.
The Inneses are of Flemish extraction, and many remark-
able men who filled high offices in Church and State have
sprung from Berowaldus, the first of the name, and of his
posterity it has been said " they have either been notable
or happy in that their inheritance never went to a woman ;
that none of them married an ill wife, and that no friend
ever suffered for their debt."
Sir Walter Scott, in speaking of the situation of Floors
Castle, the residence of the Duke of Roxburghe, says :
" The mansion of Fleurs (or Floors), with its terrace, its
woods, and its extensive lawn, forms altogether a kingdom
for Oberon or Titania to dwell in, or any spirit who before
thes7 time might love scenery of which the majesty and
even the beauty impress the mind with a sense of awe
mingled with pleasure." The Tweed, for some miles above
the castle, flows between lofty and picturesque banks, but
at Floors a spacious plain opens up on the left bank, and
on a terrace commanding the view of the river the castle
is built. Its dimensions are palatial, and the architecture
of the Tudor-Elizabethan order. Alarge rectangular block,
flanked by towers crowned with minarets, occupies the
centre of the building, and on each side of the towers ex-
tensive wings, surmounted by dome and turret, stretch
northward, forming a stately quackangle, from which can
be viewed the old and once almost impregnable bar on'al
seat of the Fomes and the weird three-cleft; Eiidons. The
prospect :"rom the south side of the caa:le is very fine, and
'embraces the old castle of Roxburgh, the town of Kelso,
with its venerable massive ruined abbey, and the delight-
ful panorama of country where Tweed and Teviot flow
almost side byside, and at last mingle their waters ; as also
the genay undulating and finely wooded upland etreteh-
ing to aid bounded by the blue Cheviots. In the 1.-wn
sloping from Floors Castle to the Tweed is the spot
marked by a holly-tree where James 11. was killed by the
bursting of a cannon, when besieging Roxburgh Castle,
which stands facing Floors. Of this old and once im-
portant fortress, the scene of many a siege and treaty—at
one time in the possession of the English, at another of
the Scottish armies—the remains yet convey an idea of its
size, strength, and strategical importance in Border warfare.
Occupying almost wholly the neck of the peninsula be-
' twecn. the Tweet and Teviot it was natrrally well forti-
fied, and from its geographical position was, in the words
of Earl Hes t:ord in a letter to Henry VIII., "surely the
very seat and place which shall and may scourge, and keep
in obedience, both the Marches and Tevietdale." The
archways and huge blocks of wall on the Teviot side still
remind the traveller of the "towering fortress" and its his-
torical associations; but within its walls tall trees now
rise, and sheep browse on its battlements and in its moat,
and on summer holidays picnic partiesquiely regale them-
selves, after satisfying their historical tastes and beholding
the magnificent view from the ridge on which it is built,
with the contents of their hampers—fearing no foe.
Under the west wing of irloors Castle stands what up to
within a few yea: s was the principal Sower garden. It is
5.'1.1. however, kept up, and
_presents a very gay appear-
ance during the spring and summer months, being bedded
out with choice flowers. This garden is of limited dimen-
sions, but is laid out, after a very elaborate and tasteful
design, in the Italian or geometrical style. At the north
end of it is a conservatory, always filled with gorgeous
flowers from the conservatories and green-houses when
the ducal family are residing at the castle. In the centre
of this house is a bed filled with camelias of considerable
size, all in excellent health, some of which are reckoned
among the best specimens in Britain. Leaving this part
of the gardens, there is a choice of two paths leading to
the flower and kitchen gardens, which are about throe
hundred s ards to the woat. The way by which we ap-
proached was through what may be termed a bower, formed
on the one side by the flank of a wood and on the other by
some noble specimens of Spanish chestnuts ; at the extreme
of which there at once bursts upon our view in all its
splendour the principal flower garden. Nature could not
have perhaps provided a more beautiful site for it, and Art
has done its share in make it a delightful snot. It is bounded
on the north side by what is generally acknowledged to be
the finest range of glass in Britain, extending to about
85,000 square feet. On the east and south it is encircled by
stately trees. The west side is bounded by the east wall
of the thchen garden, which is planted with hederacea and
ether climbing plants, so that in a year or two this will also
bo a sheet of living green, forming a tapestry rivalling all
the skill of science and art. This garden has an area of
several acres laid out on the geometrical style, and planted
after the same fashion as the gardens of South Kensington.
The glass already referred to is divided into eight compart-
ments, all span roofed ; the largest houslelkbourp
being
athe centre,
conser-
vatory 250 feet long, having a winding
and filled with many rare and beautifullof
a 'spe
size, specimens of the
two of n
being conservatories,fthe
finest exotics. The other houses are al
plant stove, three vineries, and
s
one peach-house. The plants a
plants are of the finest in cultiva-
tion, and bear evidence that the highest skill and ability
have been employed in their management. The kitchen
garden comprises four acres, and is nicely walled in, having
six acres without for growing the more common vegetables.
Glass here is also in great abundance, consisting of peach-
houses, vineries, pineries, orchard and fern houses,
greenhouses, cucumber, melon, and propagating houses,
with numerous other places for horticultural purposes.
All these different divisions have been laid out within
the last seven years, under the direction of Mr. Rose,
the
principal gardener, whose skill as an eminent horti-
culturist was evinced at the international flower show
held in Edinbur4h a few weeks ago,--Telegraph.