LADY TWEEDDALE'S BEDROOM

Sir Walter Scott is wrong in referring to Hugo de Gifford; the ' de' implies a place called Gifford, and no such place existed until the 18th century.
All the early charters say Giffard, which is the name of Walter de Longueville, cousin of William the Conqueror,
who led the charge of the knights at Hastings; it is probable that our Hugh Gifford is one of his relations.

We do not know exactly when the castle was built, but by 1250 Sir Hugh Giffard of Yester had a castle, and was agreeing with his father-in-law,
Thomas de Morham, about the extent of his park. As a Broun of Colstoun witnessed the charter this is probably the father of Marion, the builder of the castle,
and, it follows, the wizard. This makes Yester Castle the oldest Norman fortification in Scotland; it may also explain why the local people,
if they had never seen such a building before, thought its owner must be a magician.

There is, however, another explanation of the title; if Margaret Murray is right, the Norman overlord would have been local leader
of the ancient fertility cult which later degenerated into witchcraft. In that cult the wild pear is the symbol of wisdom.
In 1399 Jonet, daughter and heiress of another Sir Hugh Gifford married Sir William Hay of Locherworth.
She seems to have been a lady of independent character and continued to dispense rough justice at her Baron Court and sign herself ' Gifford of Yester.'
She may have been the builder of the Parish Kirk of St. Cuthbert at Bathans, as the first reference to it is in her charters; but it is possible that
the Kirk of Duncanlaw, referred to a hundred years earlier, is the same building.