Its ancient proprietors were
a race of powerful and warlike carons, who bore the same name with the
castle itself, which was Ravenswood. Their line extended to a remote
period of antiquity, and they had intermarried with the Douglasses,
Humes, Swintons, Hays, and other families of power and distinction
in the same country. Their history was frequently involved in that of
Scotland itself, in whose annals their feats are recorded. The Castle of
Ravenswood, occupying, and in some measure commanding, a pass betweixt
Berwickshire, or the Merse, as the southeastern province of Scotland is
termed, and the Lothians, was of importance both in times of foreign
war and domestic discord. It was frequently beseiged with ardour, and
defended with obstinacy, and, of course, its owners played a conspicuous
part in story. But their house had its revolutions, like all sublunary
things: it became greatly declined from its splendour about the middle
of the 17th century; and towards the period of the Revolution, the last
proprietor of Ravenswood Castle saw himself compelled to part with the
ancient family seat, and to remove himself to a lonely and sea-beaten
tower, which, situated on the bleak shores between St.
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