The Scott Country

ken clans, Turnbulls and Rutherfords, Cranstouns and Olivers. It has its rich endowment of beauty as well as of history. Around the keep of Branxholm, wh

g Scott was hanged at his own gate, and here comes in

rse, that loads t

ide to Teviot's

s, whose sides are

attered tufts the

t Harden, far a

escended; the "mountain home", hidden in its narrow glen, to which the "Flower of Yar

great lamb and sheep fairs, they are prouder still of the prowess of its sons in the dark days that followed Flodden, and in other scenes of Border strife. Scott was familiar with its story, as with the streets and with the steep hills that surround this stirring little metropolis of industrial and pastoral life; and allusion 23 has already been made to the lit

night so fo

rnshole is kept green by the annual ceremony of the "Common Riding", when Hawick is to be seen in its gayest and most jubilant mood. The words and tune of its slogan of "Teribus ye Teriodin" are supposed to have descended to it from heathen times, and to ha

s ye Te

roes slain

g Border

your rights

lls to the head-streams of the Liddel and thence to those of the North Tyne, or to the "Debatable Land", the Solway, and Carlisle. Another crowd of warlike memories and of pastoral and woodland charms awaits those who, from Hawick, or from the old Douglas seat of Cav

n the Malay East-below "dark Ruberslaw" and the Dunion, which interposes its round-backed form between the "mining Rule" and the "crystal Jed", and more directly under the Minto Crags and the

from whence

eague his pre

descent from "Gibbie with the Gowden Garters", a daughter of Harden, Sir Walter could "count kin". Jed Water and Ale Water come in from south and nor

iddel's fa

from mount

e lakes did

s crested wi

ne of a che

lheugh and by the ridge of Lilliard's Edge, across which the main road from Carlisle, that has followed the course

with Engl

as true and the

en Lord Ev

Maid Lilliard" contributed manfully, until, like a

dburgh, whose townsfolk, armed with their "Jeddart staves" and to their slogan of "Jeddart's Here!" were in the front of the Border Wars. Its Abbey, founded by David the Saint, who placed here Augustinian canons from Beauvais early in the twelfth century, is still, in spite of having been seven times burned, the stateliest and the best preserved of the medi?val religious houses of the Scott

to the camp of Newstead, under Eildon. From end to end these hills are deserted, except by the shepherd and the sportsman. Along the "wild and willowed shore" of Teviot and of Jed, the "glaring balefires blaze no more". The race of the mosstroopers-of "John o' the Side" and "Christie's Will", the "Laird's Jock" and "Hobbie Noble"-is long extinct. But there are still to be found fine products of the soil, of

Border wars, and was afterwards abandoned for centuries to neglect and decay. These Tweedside monastic houses have now fallen upon happier times; for, apart from the reverence they have gathered from the past, and not least from their association with Sir Walter Scott, they have lately become national possessions, through the generosity of the Duke of Roxburghe at Kelso, of the Duke of Buccleuch at Melrose, and of Lord Glenconner at Dryburgh. The Pr?monstratensian Abbey on the bend of the Tweed under Bemerside Hill differs from its rivals in respect that it has preserved more of the monastic buildings and less of the church. Of Dryburgh Abbey Church-apart from the north transept, of which more has to be said-little is left beyond th

among woods and overlooked by hills. To reach it you have to circumvent rivers and climb up and down steep braes. The easiest way of approach is by crossing Lessudden Bridge, from the south bank of the Tweed above the tow

air flood, and

down Tev

urgh, including the Abbey ruins. She became his inheritor; but before then Robert Haliburton had lost his lands through unwise speculation. David Erskine, eleventh Earl of Buchan-brother of Lord Chancellor Erskine and of Harry Erskine, the brilliant wit and pleader-who has left the impress of his eccentric mind on the colossal statue of Wallace which stands, "frowning towards England", above his suspension bridge for foot passengers crossing the Tweed from St. Boswells, became possessor of the ground; and, through Lady Scott, obtained a promise from the author of Waverley that he should be buried in this kindred earth. Lady Scott died in 1826, and B

distant Iona; and hence, probably, travelled Aidan to convert heathen Northumbria and to found Lindisfarne and Hexham; here dwelt, as first abbot, his companion Eata, and also Boisel, who gave his name to St. Boswell's opposite, and to whom came for instruction Cuthbert, a shepherd lad who had been reared at Wrangham, near Brotherstone, and had tended his flock and seen visions in the Lammermoors. From "Mailros", the bald promontory-its 32 very name attests the tongue in which the Celtic founders spoke-St. Cuthbert's body in its stone coffin floated downstream on its many wanderings by water and land; and, as related by Bede, the hermit Drithelm was wont

e scene by direction and position. Out of sight, directly under the brow of the hill, is the ancient square fortalice, with later buildings attached, and grounds stretching down towards the Tweed, where Haigs have been resi

tyde, whate

be Haig of

e "Eildon Stone"; and beyond these, on Abbotsford property, the reputed "Rhymer's Glen", where "True Thomas" encountered the Queen of Fa?ry, although the tryst may well have been at Huntlywood, behind Brotherstone, on the Eden Water, and near Corsbie Tower, the ruined "Castle of Avenel". As has been said, Drithelm and Cuthbert were visionaries, so were Boisel, the second Abbot of the old, and Waldave,