Sorry to hear about the Beefeaters at the Tower, that makes me a bit sad as it was through the guides at the Tower that I first heard about Anne Boleyn!   That was when i was ten so it was a looooong time ago!

Jenny – interesting to hear about Paxton House; my last name is Kerr and my ancestors came from the border lands!  I've never heard of Paxton House but then there are several different strands of the Kerr clan!  Sometimes different spellings too, Ker and Carr being two examples.  Robert Carre, Earl of Somerset and favourite of King James VI/I came from Kerr stock, though unfortunately not an altogether nice person…

Oh and if anyones planning a trip to Edinburgh Castle soon, don't be in the general vicinity of the one o'clock gun when it goes off, if they still have it!  I was once and it left my ears ringing for hours afterwards!!!!!! 

Hi once again Tina and Bella,

Paxton House as it is now is relatively modern (about 250 years old) but it was a fortress in the middle ages when the English and the Scots were beating the hell out of each other. – Bella there is quite a good website of the Kerr/Carr family if your like to look back.  

The whole of the border area of Scotland/England is super interesting as various cities were sometimes Scots and sometimes English.  Berwick on Twweed which is now English was Scots for a while and on the other side of the country Carilisle (another beautiful and interesting city) does not appear in the Doomsday book because it belonged to Scotland at the time.

On my visit to the eastern side of the border I was extremely impressed by the ruins of the 3 major abberys, Jedburgh, Dryburgh and Melsrose and I also got to visit teh Hermitage in between Jedburgh and Hawick (pronoinced Hoyk) where Mary Queen of Scots was supposed to have spent a night with Bothwell.  What amazed me were that the rooms were so tiny and she being 6 ft. tall she must have had to doble up.  There was also a shoe which she apparently left behind and again I thought it wierd as it was so tiny.  I suppose it must have shrunk with the ages. 

The Tudors were quite hesitant on going that far north – Margaret, eldest daughter of HVII obviously did as she married James V and Katherine of Aragon was there representing HVIII when he was in France and in fact won teh battle against the Scots and I thik the main victim was her brother in law James V whose bloody coat she presented to Henry on his return from France.  But HVIII never ventured that far and neither did his children.  

Hi Jenny, no I'm not left-handed but for some reason the computer mouse always has to be on the left side (just doesn't feel right using my right hand for that!) and sending txt etc on my cell phone I tend to use my left hand as well.  There's a few other things as well where it just feels better using my my left hand!  Hope that makes sense, lol!  Cheers for the website tip too, I might just have to check it out!

I would love to spend a few days staying in a manor/castle in Scotland – that would totally be a dream come true for me!  I'm assuming there must be places in England and Wales too, though I can't think of any off the top of my head.