Thence, after the Reformation, it passed into the hands of a true-blue Protestant family.

During the covenanting troubles, when a night conventicle was held upon the Pentlands, the farm doors stood hospitably open till the morning; the dresser was laden with cheese and bannocks, milk and brandy; and the worshippers kept slipping down from the hill between two exercises, as couples visit the supper-room between two dances of a modern ball.

In the Forty-Five, some foraging Highlanders from Prince Charlie's army fell upon Swanston in the dawn.

The great-grandfather of the late farmer was then a little child; him they awakened by plucking the blankets from his bed, and he remembered, when he was an old man, their truculent looks and uncouth speech.

The churn stood full of cream in the dairy, and with this they made their brose in high delight.