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The Scottish Borders (Our Ancestral Home) revised edition
William Denholm Edinburgh, Scotland 2001
I decided to take my children out for the day And show them where they’re ancestors used to stay So we got in the car and drove to the Scottish Borders First stop Melrose Abbey, the place of holy ancient orders This magnificent ruin still stands fast A constant reminder of Scotland’s bloody past Within its walls lies the Heart of Robert the Bruce The gallant King who brought freedom's truce
We got back in the car And passed by the Rymer’s stone I knew at that point it wouldn’t be long till We reached Denholm’s ancestral home We took a wrong turn And ended up in Ancrum instead I can’t imagine our most ancient Would have made this Tory heartland his bed At that point I didn’t know what to do When Lindsay said, “Dad, look at the sign post, It might give us a clue.” I looked at the signpost and it read DENHOLM, five miles ahead
We arrived at the village Where I took photographs of the children At the DENHOLM village sign To remind them of their visit in a future time We then went down to the village green Where a monument to Sir John Layden can be seen Lindsay and Lauren played in the park for a while The one thing that always guaranteed to make them smile I looked around and not another soul could I see Well it was Sunday afternoon Maybe they were having their tea
We got back in the car And crossed the Dean Burn And we ended up in Hawick Somewhere along the line I had taken another wrong turn We were passing through Selkirk When we heard an almighty roar The 'Rugby Sevens' were on And someone kicked a conversion to score
By the time we got to Peebles The Children were starving And these Children I had to feed So we stopped the car and bought our Suppers And ate them by the Banks of the River Tweed Lauren found another park Where they both played a little longer I can only hope after this visit Their border roots will become stronger, Love Dad