Fernilee, a hamlet on the S border of Galashiels parish, Selkirkshire, on the left bank of the river Tweed, near Yair Bridge, 5¼ miles NNW of Selkirk. Fernilee mansion here, now a decayed edifice, was the seat of the Rutherfords, and in one of its turrets the beautiful Miss Alison Rutherford (1712-94), who in 1731 became the wife of Patrick Cockburn, advocate, wrote her version (` I've seen the smiling, ' etc.) of the Flowers of the Forest.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)