26 August–1 September 1878

Again this dear and blessed anniversary returns, and again without my beloved blessed One ! But he is ever with me in spirit. When I came down to breakfast, I gave Beatrice a mounted enamelled photograph of our dear Mausoleum, and a silver belt of Montenegrin workmanship. After breakfast I gave my faith- ful Brown an oxidised silver biscuit-box, and some onyx studs. He was greatly pleased with the former, and the tears came to his eyes, and he said " It is too much." God knows, it is not, for one so devoted and faithful. I gave my maids also trifles from Dunbar; and to Janie Ely, the gentlemen, and the servants a trifle each, in remem- brance of the dear day and of the place. Walked out at half-past ten with Beatrice and the Duchess to the very fine kitchen-garden, and into the splendid hothouse where they have mag- nificent grapes. The peaches are also beautiful. From here we walked again along the burnside to the sea, the Duchess's pretty and very amiable collie (smaller than Noble, but with a very hand- some head), Rex, going with us. We looked at the " Lord Warden" (Captain Freemantle) which arrived yesterday from Spitlicad, where we saw her in the Fleet. She had been guardship last year. There is a pretty view from this walk to the sea over a small lake, with trees, beyond which Dunbar is seen in the distance. Then I sat out in the garden and wrote. After that, when Beatrice re- turned from a walk near the sea with the Duchess, I went to look at the gravestone of Sir William Douglas, which is quite concealed amongst the bushes near the lawn. The battle of D2inbar took place (September 3, 1650) close to Broxmouth, and Sir Walter Scott says Cromwell's camp was in the park ; but this is doubtful, as it is described as on the north of the Broxburn. Leslie's camp was on Donne Hill, conspicuous for miles round. When the Scottish army left their strong position on the hill, they came to the low ground near the park wall. Cromwell is said to have stood on the hillock where the tower in the grounds has been built, and the battle must have been fought close to the present park gate. I afterwards planted a deodara on the lawn, in the presence of the Duke and Duchess. Indoors near one o'clock. Directly after our usual luncheon we saw Lady Susan Suttie with her two youngest children — Victoria, eleven years, and a boy of nine — and afterwards Lord and Lady Bowmont and their two fine children — the eldest, Margaret, three, and the youngest, Victoria, nine months. The boy did not come. At half-past three started with Beatrice, Leopold, and the Duchess in the landau and four, the Duke, Lady Ely, General Ponsonby, and Mr. Yorke going in the second carriage, and Lord Haddington riding the whole way. We drove through the west part of Dunbar, which was very full, and where we were literally pelted with small nosegays, till the carriage was full of them, by a number of young ladies and girls ; then on for some distance past the village of Belhaven, Knoch- indale Hill, where were stationed, in. their best attire, the queen of the gipsies, an oldish woman with a yellow handkerchief on her head, and a youngish, very dark, and truly gipsy-like woman in velvet and a red shawl, and another woman. The queen is a thorough gipsy, with a scarlet cloak and yellow handkerchief round her head. Men in red hunting-coats, all very dark, and all stand- ing on a platform here, bowed and waved their handkerchiefs. It was the English queen of the gipsies from Norwood, and not the Scottish border one. We next passed the paper mills, where there were many people, as indeed there were at every little village and in every direction. We turned to the right, leaving the Traprain Law, a pro- minent hill, to the left, crossed the Tync, and entered the really beautiful park of Tyningham — Lord Haddington's. More splendid trees and avenues of beech and sycamore, and one very high holly hedge. The drive under the avenues is very fine, and at the end of them you see the sea (we could, however, see it but faintly because of the haze). We passed close to the house, a handsome one, half Elizabethan, with small Scotch towers, and a very pretty terrace garden, but did not get out. Driving on through the park, which reminded me of Windsor and Windsor Forest, we again came upon the high road and passed by Whitekirk, a very fine old church, where numbers of people were assembled, and very soon after we saw through the haze the high hill of North Ber- wick Law, looking as though it rose up out of the sea, and another turn or two brought us to Tan- tallon, which is close to and overhangs the sea. We drove along the grass to the old ruins, which are very extensive. Sir Hew Dalrymple, to whom it belongs, received us, and took us over the old remains of the moat, including the old gateway, on which the royal standard had been hoisted. Lady Dalrymple (a Miss Arkwright) received us. No one else was there but Sir David Baird, who had joined us on the way on horseback. Sir Hew Dalrymple showed me about the ruins of this very ancient castle, the stronghold of the Douglases. It belonged once to the Earl of Angus, second husband to Queen Margaret (wife of James IV.), and was finally taken by the Covenanters. It was unfortunately so hazy that we could not distinguish the Bass Rock, though usually it is quite distinctly seen, being so near ; and all the fine surrounding coast was quite invisible. There was a telescope, but we could see nothing through it ; it was, besides, placed too low. Seated on sofas near the ledge of the rock, we had some tea, and the scene was extremely wild. After this we left, being a good deal hurried to get back (as it was already past six), and returned partly the same way, by Binning Wood, also belonging to Lord Haddington (which reminds one of Windsor Forest), but which we could not drive through, through Tyningham village to Bcllowford, where the cross road turned off. This brought us sooner back, and we reached Broxmouth by twenty-five minutes to eight, Lord Haddington riding the whole way. We dined at half-past eight, only the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe with ourselves. At ten or eleven o'clock we left Broxmouth with regret, as we had spent a most pleasant time there. We went in the same carriage (a landau), the Duchess of Roxburghe with us, and were driven by the same horses which had been out each day, including this day's long drive, the postilion Thomson riding admirably. Dunbar was very prettily illuminated, and the paper mills also. We took leave of the kind Duke* and Duchess with real regret, having enjoyed our visit greatly. All had gone off so well.