History
The Buccleuch Arms Hotel stands beside the village green in St Boswells, bordering the main road from Jedburgh to Edinburgh. The village was previously known as "Lessudden" (from Lis-Edwin, the Court of Edwin) and was a very important stronghold, having 16 bastle-houses which were destroyed by the invading forces of Henry VIII in 1545.
The Hotel takes its name from the family who built it. The 5th Duke of Buccleuch was a boy of 13 when he inherited his title in 1819 after his father died unexpectedly in Lisbon. He married the daughter of the Marquess of Bath in 1829 and they lived at Dalkeith House. The Duke ran a pack of hounds at Dalkeith, but he also had a lodge at Eildon near Melrose and decided to build kennels for his hunt nearby. He chose ground near to the village green which bordered the road to Edinburgh and a fine kennels was erected in 1836. The Buccleuch Arms Inn was built alongside "to accommodate the aristocracy of fox-hunting proclivities". The landlord in 1837 (Pigot's Directory) was John Reid. There was another Inn on St Boswells green run by widow Ann Thomson who was there in 1837 and in 1851 (she died in 1875).
The proprietor of the hotel in 1841 and 1851 was John Brown, a native of Stow, with his wife Margaret and six children. He also seems to have farmed adjacent land. Mrs Thomson was still at the other Inn at St Boswells green.
Two well-known guests who stayed at the hotel in the 1860's were Lt. Col. Frederick Peake, known as "Pasha Peake" and William Younger (Brewer), a young man of thirty.
There were a succession of landlords throughout the latter part of the 19th Century and Robert Kerr took over at the start of the New Year.
IIn 1929 and 1939 Henry Albert Simpson was the proprietor.
There were daily coaches between Newcastle and Edinburgh passing through St Boswells as well as a coach from Jedburgh on alternate days and a service between Kelso and Glasgow. The mail was delivered to the Post Office on the Green and dispatched to meet the coach between Edinburgh and Carlisle, so there was a great deal of traffic.
An Annual Fair on 18th July was held on the Green next to the Buccleuch Arms Hotel. This also brought an influx of visitors, including hundreds of gypsies, horse-traders and cattle-dealers. In the evening after the fair a sumptuous dinner was held in the Baron Baillie's apartments and the food, usually roast lamb, peas and gooseberry tarts (and a large quantity of drink) was carried across from the Buccleuch Arms.
For those interested in ghosts, there were several sightings at the other end of the village at Benrig of a man in black, dressed in the style of a minister of the Church C.1850. He was seen in succession by a farmer, several young girls and the Scott sisters (related to Sir Walter) of Lessudden House. The last reported appearance was in the early 1900's, but you might be lucky!
Our ghost here is called Peter who was the last man hanged in Jedburgh in the 1950's and is a very pleasant ghost. A lot of the longer serving staff have seen him, the occasional practical joke is played by him, whether it be moving or hiding things. Also a lot of guests have also seen him over the years and the last sighting of him was most recently on 31st December 2005.