Greenlaw

Greenlaw (a “grassy hill”), a town of Berwickshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 611. It is situated on the Blackadder, 62¼ m. S.E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway company’s branch line from Reston Junction to St Boswells. The town was built towards the end of the 17th century, to take the place of an older one, which stood about a mile to the S.E. It was the county town from 1696 to 1853, when for several years it shared this dignity with Duns, which, however, is now the sole capital. The chief manufactures are woollens and agricultural implements. About 3 m. to the S. the ruin of Hume Castle, founded in the 13th century, occupies a commanding site. Captured by the English in 1547, in spite of Lady Home’s gallant defence, it was retaken two years afterwards, only to fall again in 1569. After its surrender to Cromwell in 1650 it gradually decayed. Towards the close of the 18th century the 3rd earl of Marchmont had the walls rebuilt out of the old stones, and the castle, though a mere shell of the original structure, is now a picturesque ruin.