BEMERSYDE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3414, 20 August 1919, Page 52

BEMERSYDE.

TO THS EDITOB.

Sm. —In connection with the title, Earl Haig'of Bemersyde, which, it is stated, Sir Douglas Haig has assumed, it is interesting to note that although the field-marshal was born in Edinburgh, and it is Fifeshire that claims him as one of her sons, the family of Haig has been associated with Bemersyde for "centuries. The well-known prophecy ascribed to Thomas the Rhymer says: Betide, betide whate'or betide Haig shall be Haig of Bemersyde. Situated on the Berwickshire bank of the Tweed, within a short distance of Dryburgh Abbey, Beme-rsyde lies in the midst of the country over which the spell was drawn by the Wizard of the North, and from the brae at Bemersyde there stretches out, down the valley of the Tweed, and across the woods of Mertoun and Makerstoun, that fair prospect of the Borderland which was the joy of Sir Walter Scott, and, as Lookhart tells us, it was the spot at which, on the funeral day, the horses of the hearse, as was their habit, paused as if to allow their owner to take his last look upon the familiar scene. It has been left to the present generation to bring additional honour to the name of Haig, and it is satisfactory to know that, notwithstanding the upheavals of the past five years, the Rhymer's prophecy remains good, and there is" still " Haig of Bemersyde."—£ am, etc., D. R. N. Dunedin, August 14.