Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

JOnXSTOXE, oil LOCHWOOD TOWEK. CCCXXxiii
M;iny of the oaks in this wood exist in stately grandeur of hoary aijo.
Two cf tliesc,
ix-jmlavly called sometimes "TlicKing" aud "The Queen," otherwise "The Lord"
and " The Lady," are of great size, as may be seen by tlio accompanying drawing of
them. One of the oaks has a girth of 17^ feet. Specimens of these oaks are given
in the accomjiauyiug sketches. The trees are similar to those in the ancient forest of
Cadzow, in wliich the white Caledonian cattle kept by the Duke of Hamilton have
been in possession for a long period of time.
The ancient tower and the great trees have inspireil local poets, and even some of
wider fame. The late Mr. Thomas Aird thus happily describes the oaks :
" The reverend oak takes back
The heart to elder days of holy awe.
Such oaks are they, the hoariest of their race,
Eound Loclnvood Tovrer, the Johnstone's ancient scat,
Bow'd down with very age, and rough all o'er
With scurfy moss and parasitic hair."
Lochwood Tower as origiiially built had not been of the same dimensions as the
later tower which took its place. It has been long in ruins, and has not been
inhabited for upwards of a hundred rnd seventy years. A portion of tlie wall and two
apartments with vaulted roofs, and the fallen stones and rubbish, are all that remain
of this ancient residence of the Johnstoues. But the thickness of the walls, and its
position in relation to the surrounding marshes, attest it to have been a place of very
great strength.^
This Johnstone stronghold often experienced the vicissitudes inseparable from the
raids of border warfare, and in particular from tlic lamentable feuds whicli lasted so
long between the rival clans of 5Laxv,ell and Johnstone. In the course of one of these
feuds, in the year 15 85, Lochwood Tower was the scene of a destructive conflagration
caused by Kobert Maxwell, natural brother of Lord JIaxwclh Tliis burning of Loch-
wood, aud the language which the spectacle evoked from its perpetrator, arc stated in
the lines of Mr. M'Yitie :
" The Lochwood Tower that very night,
lie quickly fired in furious mood :
' I '11 give,' said he, ' Dame Johnston light
To place aright her silken hood ! " -
1 A saying Laving reference to tbe gieat who built Lochwood, tbougli outwardly
strength of Lochwood Tower, and variously honest, must have been a knave in his heart."
attributed to the two sovereigns, James tbe
Fifth and James the Sixth, is that " the man = The r,.-ittle of Dryfe Sand?, p. 13.