below the strata of coal that abound in the fields, it
communicates through the coal-rooms that are
wrought with other shafts, which occasions a rumbling
noise, that does not precede, but accompanies,
a high wind.?
According to the old Valuation Roll, Monkton
was the property of Patrick Falconer between I 726
and 1738.
Stonyhill and Monkton, according to Inquisitiones
A)kciaZes, both belonged to John, Earl of Lauder-
NEW HAILES HOUSE.
of fit accompaniments of a very ancient and
stately house.
Colonel Francis Charteris was a cadet of an?
ancient and honourable Dumfriesshire family, the
Charteris of Amisfield, whose tall, old, stubborn-looking
fortalice stands between the two head streams
of the Lochar. After serving in the wars of Marlborough,
the year 1704 saw him figuring in E h -
burgh as a member of the beau msde, with rather
an awkward reputation of being a highly successful
dale, at one time. The gardens of both appear to
have been among the earliest in Britain; and entries
in the household books of Dalkeith Palace show
that fruit and vegetables (which, however, could
scarcely have been so excellent then as now),
came therefrom two centuries ago.
Stonyhill House, near New Hailes, the property
of the Earl of Wemyss, seeming, in its present form,
to be only the offices of an ancient mansion, was
the residence, firstly, of Sir William Sharp, son of
the ill-fated Archbishop Sharp, and his wife, Helen
Moncrieff, daughter of the Laird of Randerston ;
and secondly, of the inglorious, or ? wicked
Colonel Charteris?; and it has remnants in its
vicinity, especially a huge buttressed garden wall,
gambler. There is a story told of him that, being
at the Duke of Queensbeny?s house in the Canongate
one evening, and playing,with the duchess, he
was enabled, by means of a mirror, or, more probably,
a couple of mirrors that chanced to be
placed opposite each other, to see what cards were
in the hands of Her Grace-Mary Boyle, daughter
of Lord Clifford-through which means he won
from her no less a sum than three thousand pounds
sterling-a very great one at that time. (? Domestic
Annals of Scotland.?)
It is added that the duke was so provoked by
this incident, that he got a Bill passed by the
Parliament over which he presided as Lord High
Commissioner, to prohibit all gambling beyond a
