iilLi: iiiiiii;i!!i! LIBR^RV Ol- THK University of California. BOUGHT WITH FUND GIVEN BY SCOTTISH SOCIETIES OF CALIFORNIA. Class ,:^:^ 5 TTiisBooJcbelongstD W-H- SMITH & SON'S SUBSCKIPTION UBRARY l86 Strand. London w^c.&ardie RAILWAY BOOKSTALLS Tcnm onappUiCation^ THE SCOTT COUNTRY SIR WALTER SCOTT. BART., IN HI From the f'ortrait by Sir Williatit Allan, R.A. Paititcti iti 1 8 t/ie National Portrait GalUrv. THE SCOTT COUNTRY W. S. CROCKETT Minister of Tweedsmuir AUTHOR OF " IN PRAISE OF TWEED," ETC. V OF THE \ LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1902 TO MY WIFE • O great and gallant Scott, True gentleman, heart, blood, and bone, I would it had been my lot To have seen thee, and heard thee, and known !" —Tennyson. PREFACE While Edinburgh boasts the distinction of being the birthplace of Sir Walter Scott, and the greater part of his professional career was spent in the Capital, his " own romantic town," it goes without saying that nowhere was he more at home, and nowhere do we find so many associations with him, as in the Scottish Border. In the triangle which may be traced on the map from Berwick-on-Tweed to the Solway, thence northward to Tweedsmuir and Broughton in Peebles- shire, and again to the east back to the ancient seaport borough, we have embraced what are practically the chief boundary-lines of that historic region. No part of the kingdom is more redolent of poetic and romantic memories. It is the homeland of Romance, under the spell of the centuries, and, most of all, of the great Wizard with whose name it is ever indissolubly connected. Sir Walter is the possession and pride of the world. All countries have been laid under viii Preface contribution to his genius, and every part of Scotland is Scott-land. The Vale of the Tweed, however, comes into closest relationship with the man and his work. By descent, residence, and deep-rooted affection, Scott is facile princeps among Borderers. No one loved the Borderland more intensely. There has been no better interpreter of its history, and no figure more representative of its strongly-patriotic and clan-bound life. By one of the sweetest nooks of the Border does his dust now repose " With the noble dead In Dryburgh's solemn pile. Amid the peer and warrior bold, And mitred abbots stern and old, Who sleep in sculptured aisle." A locality glorified by such names as Sandyknowe and Kelso, Ashestiel and Abbotsford, Melrose and Dry- burgh, Traquair and Ercildoune, Tweed and Yarrow, has no difficulty in establishing its claim to be par excel- lence the " Scott Country," and in popular parlance it is generally so described. To tell somewhat of its story — the age-long memories that encircle it, its wealth of literary association, and the singular charm of its scenery — is the aim of the present volume. For years it has been my ambition to write such a book, which should contain in brief compass a plain record of practically all the salient features in the history of the Border. Born and brought up on its storied soil, Preface ix under the shadow of the ruined Tower " where, by the Leader's haughs and lea, the Rhymer's wizard-harp was strung," and close to Cowdenknowes, " So famous in old song, Where shepherds tuned their Doric reed Its yellow blooms among"; within easy distance, too, of Sandyknowe on the one side, and of Abbotsford on the other ; and having now my home at the source of the " fair river," it were im- possible to remain irresponsive to the spirit of the district. Scott is the great guardian Genius of Tw^eed- side, wielding an influence as potent to-day as when he wandered by its banks and braes. It has been a delight to weave throughout this work some biographical links with the Mighty Minstrel. " The Scott Country" is therefore sent forth in the hope that pleasure and profit may accompany its perusal. For the pictorial portion of the volume I am under a deep debt of gratitude to many friends for photographs and sketches generously supplied me, along with permission for their reproduction. I mention the pubhshers of the work, who have spared no pains to make it as attractively illus- trative as possible ; Messrs. T. M. Lund, of Mackintosh and Co., Kelso ; A. R. Edwards, Selkirk ; James Lewis, Selkirk ; T. H. M. Colledge, Innerleithen ; James Todd, M.A., Peebles ; J. R. Adamson, Galashiels ; G. W, Gibson, Coldstream ; C. E. S. Chambers, of W. and X Preface R. Chambers ; W. Crighton, Edinburgh ; the secretary of the Edinburgh Borderers' Union; the editor of the Border Magazine; the secretary of the Innerleithen Alpine Club ; and Miss Blair, Jedburgh. W. S. CROCKETT. TwEEDSMUiR, Peeblesshire, March, 1902. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. SCOTT'S EARLY YEARS — SMAILHOLM AND SANDY KNOWE . . . - - II. THE EARLY YEARS— KELSO AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS III. WITH THE POET OF "THE SEASONS" IV. THE GYPSY CAPITAL - - - - V. "EDEN SCENES ON CRYSTAL JED " - VI. THE LAND OF LEVDEN VII. HAWICK AMONG THE HILLS - VIII. LIDDESDALE - - - - - IX. SCOTT'S FIRST BORDER HOME X. TRAQUAIR AND ST. RONAN'S - XI. PICTURESQUE PEEBLES XII. THE TWEED UPLANDS - - - ■ XIH. THE MAKING OF ABBOTSFORD XIV. MELROSE MEMORIES - XV. THE RHYMER'S TOWN - - - - XVI. HOMES AND HAUNTS OF HOGG XVII. YARROW AND ETTRICK XVIII. THE EAST BORDER — " MARMION " AND FLODDEN XIX. THE PASSING OF THE WIZARD 1 25 54 67 79 100 118 142 157 176 201 227 251 283 312 334 349 435 471 Index 500 ILLUSTRATIONS Scott in his Study at Abbotsford Abbotsford Smailholm Sandyknowe Tower Smailholm Church The Brethren Stanes Scott at the Age of Six Years Waverley Cottage Kelso Grammar School in Scott's Day James Ballantyne Ruined Roxburgh Floors Castle Kelso Bridge Kelso Abbey " Edie Ochiltree's " Gravestone " Edie Ochiltree " Ednam Southdean Churchyard The Ednam Monument The Thomson Miniature Kirk Yetholm Charles II., the Gypsy King The Gypsy Palace Interior of the Palace Ferniherst . . Jedburgh . . Jedburgh Abbey . . Queen Mary's Tower Penielheugh Ancrum Maiden Lilliard's Grave Leyden's Birthplace Cavers Site of Henlawshiel and Ruberslaw . . Frontispiece Vignette, title-page Illustrations John Leyden Leyden's Monument at Denholm Grave of Leyden . . Hawick Hornshole . . "Old Mortality's " Birthplace " Old Mortality " Inscription on Covenanters' Stone Harden Branxholme Johnie Armstrong's Memorial and Henry Scott R The Vale of Hermitage . . Hermitage . . Meeting of Hermitage and Liddel Clovenfords Ashestiel . . The Shirra's Knowe Tom Purdie Tom Purdie' s Grave Yair Bridge Fairnalee . . Elibank Finding the MS. of " Waverley " Traquair . . Traquair Gateway Traquair Knowe . . Traquair Kirk Willie Laidlaw Laidlaw's Grave . . • ' The Bush aboon Traquair Satyr Sykes Innerleithen Peebles St. Andrew's Tower Cross Kirk . . Neidpath . . Professor Veitch . . Vale of Manor The Black Dwarf Black Dwarf's Cottage . . Barns Tower St. Gordian's Cross Tweed's Well Tweedsmuir ddell's Grave Illustrations XV Talla Linns I- AGE Linkumdoddie . 240 Drummelzier Castle . 242 Tinnis Castle • 243 Merlin's Grave • 244 Stobo Castle . 246 StoboKirk • 247 Drochil Castle . . • 249 Abbotsford in 1812 • 257 John Gibson Lockhart . . . 266 Chiefswood . . 268 Darnick Abbotsford . 269 . 270 Scott and his Literary Friends Abbotsford, South Front > 272 • 274 The Study The Library ■ 275 . 276 Chantrey Bust of Scott . . Lady Scott Entrance Hall, Abbotsford • 277 • 279 . 281 Melrose Old Melrose and the Eildons . 284 . 286 Wallace . 288 Mertoun House . . 290 Melrose Abbey . . • 295 Sir David Brewster's Tomb • 302 Melrose Cross ■ 303 Fairy Dean Allerly Sir David Brewster • 307 • 308 • 309 Market Cross, Galashiels • 310 Leaderfoot • 313 Earlston Rhymer's Tower . . The Rhymer Stone in Earlstor Church Wa • 315 . 318 • 323 Cowdenknowes . . • 325 Bemersyde . . Eildon Tree Stone . 328 • 330 Monument at St. Mary's Monument at Ettrickhall • 335 ■ 337 The Ettrick Shepherd . . Blackhouse • 341 ■ 343 Gordon Arms • 345 Ettrick Kirk • 346 XVI Illustrations Hogg's Tombstone The " Shirra" Selkirk Newark Foulshiels . . Mungo Park Yarrow Kirk The Yarrow Stone The Douglas Stones Dryhope . . Cokburne's Grave The Dow Glen and Lady's Seat St. Mary's Churchyard St. Mary's Loch . , Tibbie Shiel's Tibbie Shiel Birkhill . . Loch Skene Grey Mare's Tail Ettrick Pen Boston's Tombstone Tushielaw . . Bowhill Carterhaugh Lennel Coldstream Wark Flodden Field Twizel Bridge Sybil's Well Ford Castle Norham Castle Berwick-on-Tweed Fast Castle Vale of the Gala Newstead . . Bemersyde Dryburgh . . Dryburgh— St. Mary's Aisle Scott's Funeral, from a contemporary sketch SCOTT COUNTRY CHAPTER I SCOTT'S early years — SMAILHOLM AND SANDYKNOWE It was in the summer of 1773, about the beginning of his third year, that Scott was sent to Sandyknowe, his grandfather's farm at Smailholm, in Roxburgh- shire. A teething fever had left him lame in the right ankle, and the fear of losing him, like the six others of their family who had died in early childhood, caused his parents to act on the best medical advice, and essay the healing effect of the fresh air and the plain but wholesome diet of the country. Few places were more conducive to a strong and healthy physical life. The village of Smailholm has altered little since Scott's day save in the gradual dilapidation which has overtaken it. Clumped together here and there in what are practically three separate hamlets — the East Third, the West Third, and the Overtown — at a distance of about half a mile its appearance is by I 2 Scott Country no means prepossessing. The situation is all that could be desired, but for many years past the popula- tion has been steadily declining. What was once a busy agricultural centre, having about it all the signs of a joyous rustic life, is now deserted-looking and forlorn enough. The changed conditions of labour in the country districts, and the consequent migration SMAILHOLM. to other centres of industry, have told heavily on the Scottish hamlets ; and Smailholm has not escaped. More than one half of its sweet cottage rows have become tenantless, rent, and open to all the storms. A kind of eerie quietude hangs about them ; and there is only sadness in the reflection that they are but Smailholm and Sandyknowe 3 samples of what is more than a merely local mis- fortune. Yet Smailholm has much to commend it as a place of residence. The situation, as has been said, is one of the best on the Borders. Lying on the ridge of hill-land between the valleys of the Eden and the Leader on the one side, and the Tweed on the other, it commands some of the finest landscapes in Southern Scotland. Southward, the eye takes in Kelso, " bosomed in woods where mighty rivers run," and the long, level sweep of country bounded by Flodden spur and the blue range of Cheviot ; while to the north the dun slopes of Lammermoor and the Lauderdale heights hem in an equally magnificent stretch. Close to the kirk-gate of Smailholm a choice picture presents itself in an almost unrivalled display of agricultural glory. From poetic Ercildoune and the broomy Cowdenknowes on the left, and the thick woods of romantic Mellerstain immediately in front, through the rich, variegated strath of the Merse, field upon field are spread out in the highest character of cultivation. As an autumn scene — in the golden glow of harvest — it is singularly precious, and for the charm of Nature in some of her rarest moods nothing could be more striking ; and Smailholm offers many such opportunities to artist and nature- lover. Here, then, in this neighbourhood, with nothing to contaminate its pure airs or its crystal waters, the I — 2 4 Scott Country child from the dingy and stuffy College Wynd of Edinburgh began to take in a store of strength. No one doubts but the going of Scott to Smailholm was the means of rescuing his little life, which had been trembling in the balance. Had he remained in Edin- burgh, he would almost certainly have succumbed. It was the happy thought of Smailholm that saved him to his family and to the world. But it did more. It gave the keynote to his future. It made a man of him in the truest sense of the phrase. What the boy felt in that first consciousness at Smailholm never left him all through life. It was there that destiny began to work itself out. From the rustic humilities and simplicities of Sandyknowe he attained the highest pinnacle of reverence and renown. There can be no doubt that it was his first early environment which gave inspiration to all his after - career, and that drew out of him the possibilities of his transcendent genius. The conditions of life on a Lowland farm towards the end of the eighteenth century were, in many respects, on a different footing from farm life at the beginning of the twentieth century. The dwelling- houses w^ere primitive to a degree. Work was hard and incessant, and unrelieved by anything approaching to modern recreations. Wages were low, the food coarse, and by no means unlimited in quantity. Yet the relationship between master and servant was, if Smailholm and Sandyknowe 5 anything, of a friendlier type. There was a kind of family arrangement acceptable to all parties. A greater sense of freedom prevailed, and consequently a closer communion both at work and leisure. Sandyknowe was no exception to the good, homely rule. Robert Scott was an old man and "wearing done" when his grandchild came to the ancestral roof. A typical specimen of the bygone Border farmer, he had been tolerably successful, and was "looked up to" by most people in the district. For was he not also "sprung of Scotland's gentler blood," tracing descent from the renowned Wat of Harden, and no less than the bold Buccleuch himself? His eldest son was a Writer to the Signet, very happily married, and the rest of the family were fairly well-to-do ; yet humility was a sterling grace with the old man, and the pride of life had never found a place in his heart. Few men, it has been said, were more lovable or were more loved. It is well known that his servants remained for long periods in his employment, and when the little Walter from the great cit}-, which few of them had ever seen, came to cheer his declining days, it was an additional attraction to their simple household joys. It is long since the " thatched mansion " at Sandy- knowe, which consisted of one story and an attic, gave place to a more commodious dwelling, yet memory loves to linger around the scene of the early years of the most illustrious Scotsman the world has known ; 6 Scott Country and for his sake should not the modern homestead be regarded as scarcely less sacred? It was just about here that he played — we can make a mental photo- graph of the picture. That winsome prattle brought sunshine into more than one life. Here it was that he showed the first signs of awakening to a sense of his own individuality, and of interest in the scenes around him. It was here, too, that he felt the first breathings of that great spirit of romance and poetry which, as it thrilled through him, was to touch all the coming time. It is not difficult to imagine those years at Sandyknowe. Childhood is ever the same. He had the most sacri- ficing of aunts in the person of his father's sister, Janet Scott, who, with all a mother's love, devoted herself from the very first to her " puir lame laddie." She watched and cherished him, guarded him from accidents, coddled him with little dainties, told stories to amuse his waking hours, and sang him to sleep at nights. From the few odd volumes that lay in a corner of the window-seat — all their library — she read to him about the heroes and great men of the world, characters from the Bible, and incidents in Scottish story. But nothing pleased him more than to listen to the tales that were told him by his grandmother and aunt, of bygone days on the brave Border, and of all the old memories which were enshrined so enduringly in the hearts of the people. Such names as Jamie Telfer o' the Fair Dodhead, Auld Wat of Harden, Wight Willie Smailholm and Sandyknowe 7 of Oakwood, Johnie Armstrong of Gilnockie, Jock o' the Syde, the Deil of Littledean, Michael Scot the " Wondrous Wizard," and Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune, were known to everybod}', and the legends and ballads which immortalized them had been the treasured heritage of many a generation. From a volume of Ramsay's "Tea-Table Miscellany," which had found its way to Sandyknowe, he learned his first real lesson in the school of romantic verse. This copy was afterwards transferred to Abbotsford, and a marginal note tells that "This book belonged to my grandfather, Robert Scott, and out of it I was taught ' Hard}'knute ' by heart long before I could read the ballad myself. It was the first poem I ever learned — the last I shall ever forget." But the boy's early home lay in the very heart of a romance-haunted region. No spot could have been better suited for a poet's education or the making of a romancist. He lived and moved and had his being in an atmosphere of romance. Not more than a bowshot from the farmhouse there rose on its beetling crag one of those strongly-posted Border fortalices that dot all the district, erected by Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1535 " for the bigging of strengthis on the Bordouris." That, however, is not the date of the original structure at Sandyknowe, which was certainly very much older. Robert Hop Pringell, as the name was then written, is understood to have added to it, and strengthened it. 8 Scott Country about 1408; and, in accordance with the Act of 1535, it passed from its primitive character as a Border keep to the more defensive position of a tower. A smaller peel or bastle-house stood to the east of the village of Smailholm, but all trace of it has gone. Smailholm is a place of considerable antiquity. The SANDYKNOWE TOWER. name occurs in documents as far back as the eleventh century. Many notable families held the barony — the Olifards, Murrays, Douglases, Rutherfurds, Purveses, Cranstouns, Humes, and Hop Pringclls. The Earl of Haddington is now the Lord of the Manor, and the Tower of Sandyknowe — for that is its correct designation Smailholm and Sandyknowe 9 — is the property of Lord Polwarth, whose ancestor, Scott of Harden and Mertoun, purchased it about 1772 from the Pringles. Sandyknowe is a splendid specimen of the Border peel. It is stated to be the most perfect relic of a feudal structure in the South of Scotland, and at the height of its power must have been well-nigh impregnable. It stands lofty, square, and massive, on a rocky knoll, so commanding, and visible " at such a distance, as to be a guiding-mark to mariners off Berwick." On three sides it is defended by steep, almost perpendicular crags, and on the fourth by a morass and a deep little loch ' — supposed by some to be the lochan of "The Abbot " — the remains of a larger loch that once environed the height. These, with a strong outer wall, still traceable, within which the cattle were driven upon any sudden alarm, protected the tower or chief structure. This is built of broken whinstone, with the door-sides and lintels of a bright blood-red sandstone native to the district, brought probably from the Black Hill of Earlston. The walls are between seven and nine feet thick, and bear no trace of ornamentation. Entering by the small door on the west, there is first a lower dimly-lit vault, arched, with a small opening in the roof. Above this is the hall or large room of the tower, having an ample fireplace. This had a wooden roof, which is now gone, and above it had been a chamber, also with a wooden covering, which has disappeared, 10 Scott Country and above this is the highest story, under a vaulted roof of rough stones of great strength. West and east on the top are bartizans whence there is an outlook of vast expanse. From base to balcony it is sixty feet, and is reached by a well-preserved spiral stair. The whole building is suggestive of immense strength. The assaults of armed hosts and Time' scorroding touches have left little difference on the main body of this most interesting pile. Was ever scene so grand and fair ? That must be the reflection of all who have gazed from the summit of Sandyknowe on the majestic panorama spreading far and wide around it. Scott knew it well, and brought many of his friends in later years to get into raptures over it. His last visit was with Turner in ' the autumn of 1831, when the great artist made a sketch of the place for a new edition of the " Poems." As an amphitheatre of the most perfect beauty, crowded with a thousand memories of the heroic and the romantic, the view from Sandyknowe should satisfy all lovers of the land of Scott. Close at hand are Mertoun's Halls— " fair e'en now " — the seat of Sandyknowe's laird, son of the reivers, but bearing, too, in his veins the softer blood of Yarrow's gentle Flower. A short distance to the west, the Brethren Stanes shrine their tearful tragedy, whilst legends of the youthful Cuthbert, greatest of Border saints, still linger by the haunts of his boyhood. Further over is Bemersyde of the perennial Haigs, eternally fortified by the Rhymer's Smailholm and Sandyknowe 11 couplet. And away yonder are Dryburgh, its white monks long since laid to rest, and its bells long done ringing ; the Wizard-cleft Eildons ; Melrose, " like some tall rock with lichens grey " ; the storied vale of the Gala ; the Ettrick and Yarrow landmarks ; and in the distance the grassy peaks of Peeblesshire. On the south are the Dunion and Ruberslaw, Penielheugh and Lilliard's Edge, Carter Fell, and the long wavy outline of the Cheviots. To the north the grim Black Hill of Cowdenknowes sentinels the Rhymer's Ercildoune and the sw^eet pastoral haughs of the Leader. On the east rise the crags of Hume with its dismantled castle, " stern guardian of the Merse," the Dirringtons, Covenant- haunted Duns Law, and the open-spreading, cultivated, and fertile valley of the Tweed. "Such," says Lockhart, "were the objects that had painted the earliest images on the eye of the last and greatest of the Border Minstrels." ' More mighty spots may rise, more glaring shine. But none unite in one attaching maze, The briUiant, fair, and soft, the glories of old days.' It can hardly be forgotten how the Tower of Sandy- knowe itself influenced Scott's early compositions. Indeed, through one of these he may be said to have practically saved the building from possible destruction. In 1799 the place had fallen on evil times, and Scott of Mertoun being informed of the fact, and entreated by his kinsman to arrest the hand 12 Scott Country of the spoiler, " requested playfully a ballad in which Sandyknowe should be the scene, as the price of his assent." From this circumstance we are indebted for what is unquestionably — albeit his first — the greatest of his ballad productions, the " Eve of St. John." " That lady sat in mournful mood ; Look'd over hill and vale ; Over Tweed's fair flood, and Mertoun's wood, And all down Teviotdale." Here, then, Scott spent his boyhood, and was initiated into the mysteries of Nature and the wider world of the Unseen. Here there burst upon his vision the first glimmerings of that larger life in which he was to play so- prominent a part. The pictures of Scott at Sandy- knowe are genuinely pleasing. Here is a sweet little glimpse of an earlier scene : " Old Mrs. Scott sitting with her spinning-wheel, at one side of the fire, in a clean, clean parlour ; the grandfather, a good deal failed, in his elbow chair opposite ; and the little boy lying on the carpet, at the old man's feet, listening to the Bible, or whatever good book Miss Jenny was reading to them." At other times we can see him rolling to his heart's content, or with the eager, childish glee of one who had thoroughly entered into the spirit of the thing, trying his level best to catch hold of the watch which Sir George Makdougall of Makerstoun, an old neighbour and frequent guest, used to drag along the carpet to induce him to follow it. And when the Smailholm and Sandyknowe 13 long summer days came, with their warmth and brightness, and it was a dehght to be out-of-doors, his nurse would carry him to the hillside and the shady beild of the crags, swathed sometimes in strange enough garb, a "Tartar-like habiliment" — the skin fresh as it was flayed from the carcass of the sheep, an odd remedy, in sooth, for lameness. Then, later on, when the more delicate stage had passed, and the lines of health were beginning to glow on his cheek, when he could walk and romp about, he was usually to be found in the company of auld Sandy Ormiston, the shepherd, or " cow-bailie," drinking in with keen boyish zest all the lore of the countryside, in which that worthy was so well qualified to be his instructor. He was living in the land of the ballads and amid the scenes of many a bloody fray. Many stories floated about the district of the Highlander years, and there were a few who could remember the rising of the '15. There were old traditions, too, that the realm of Faery was not far distant, and he could tell of Cuthbert also and his miracles of mercy at Wrangholm, the very next farm- town from Sandyknowe. Of all these, we may be sure, the boy Walter Scott heard with ever-increasing enthusiasm. The well-known passage in the Introduction to the Third Canto of " Marmion" — certainly one of the finest of Scott's word-pictures, shrining so sweetly and tenderly the memory of those early days — may be 14 Scott Country quoted at length. ' It is at once a record ar apologia.' " Thus while I ape the measure wild Of tales that charm'cl me yet a child, Rude though they be, still with the chime Return the thoughts of early time ; And feelings, roused in life's first day. Glow in the line, and prompt the lay. Then rise those crags, that mountain tower, Which charm'd my fancy's wakening hour. * * * * * It was a barren scene, and wild, Where naked cliffs were rudely piled ; But ever and anon between Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green ; And well the lonely infant knew Recesses where the wall-flower grew, And honey-suckle loved to crawl Up the low crag and ruin'd wall. I deem'd such nooks the sweetest shade The sun in all its round survey'd ; And still I thought that shatter'd tower The mightiest work of human power ; And marvell'd as the aged hind With some strange tale bewitch'd my mind, Of forayers, who, with headlong force, Down from that strength had spurr'd their horse. Their southern rapine to renew, Far in the distant Cheviots blue, And, home returning, fill'd the hall With revel, wassel-rout, and brawl. Methought that still with trump and clang The gateway's broken arches rang ; Methought grim features, seam'd with scars, Glar'd through the window's rusty bars, And ever, by the winter hearth, Old tales I heard of woe or mirth. Smailholm and Sandyknowe 15 Of lovers' slights, of ladies' charms, Of witches' spells, of warriors' arms ; Of patriot battles, won of old By Wallace wight and Bruce the bold ; Of later fields of feud and fight, When, pouring from their Highland height, The Scottish clans, in headlong sway. Had swept the scarlet ranks away. While stretch'd at length upon the floor, Again I fought each combat o'er, Pebbles and shells, in order laid. The mimic ranks of war displayed ; And onward still the Scottish Lion bore, And still the scattered Southron fled before. Still, with vain fondness, could I trace. Anew, each kind familiar face. That brighien'd at our evening fire ! From the thatch'd mansion's gray-hair'd Sire, Wise without learning, plain and good, And sprung of Scotland's gentler blood ; Whose eye, in age, quick, clear, and keen, Show'd what in youth its glance had been ; To him the venerable Priest, Our frequent and familiar guest, Whose life and manners well could paint Alike the student and the saint ; Alas ! whose speech too oft I broke With gambol rude and timeless joke ; For I was wayward, bold, and wild, A self-will'd imp, a grandame's child. But half a plague, and half a jest, Was still endured, beloved, caress'd.'" As has been truly said, no poet has given to the world a picture of the dawning feelings of life and 16 Scott Country genius at once so simple, so beautiful, and so com- plete. The " venerable Priest " was the Rev. Alexander Duncan, D.D., minister of the parish (not the Rev. John Martin of Mertoun, as is sometimes stated), who had been translated from Traquair in 1743. Of some literary tastes, he was the author of one or two re- ligious manuals, but his largest work was a " History of the Revolution of 1688," published in 1790. Dr. Duncan was a familiar figure at Sandyknowe, "almost our only visitor," says Scott, and upon one occasion so sorely tried was he with the young Walter's vigorous ballad- spouting — " Hardyknute " had just been mastered — that he retaliated with the delight- fully caustic remonstrance : " One may as well speak in the mouth of a cannon as where that child is !" Scott was just like other boys. He liked to show off his new toys and his new clothes, and being able to repeat some stanzas of a poem which had struck his fancy, we do not wonder at him thus obtruding his cleverness, even in the presence of the parish minister. Twenty j-ears afterwards, in 1795, when on a visit to Smailholm, Scott called at the manse and found the old man feeble, but busy correcting proof-sheets of what must have been his " Miscellaneous Essays," published posthumously, four years after- wards. " I found him emaciated to the last degree, wrapped in a tartan nightgown, and employing all the activity of health and youth in correcting a Smailholm and Sandyknowe 17 ' History of the Revolution ' [Scott is evidently in error here], which he intended should be given to the world when he was no more. He read me several passages with a voice naturally strong, and which the feelings of an author then raised above the depression of age and declining health. I begged him to spare this fatigue, which could not but injure his health. His answer was remarkable. ' I know,' he said, ' that I cannot survive a fortnight, and what signifies an exertion that can at worst only accelerate my death in a few days?'" He died within less than the period he assigned. Like many others known to Scott in his boyhood, the historian-preacher of Smailholm has a niche in the great Temple of Waverley. Scott never forgot his old friend nor the "charming acidity" of his t manner. In 1824, when writing " St. Ronan's Well," he fixed on him for the portrait, drawn with a deft pen, of the Rev. Josiah Cargill. " He not only in- dulged in neglect of dress and appearance," says Scott, "and all those ungainly tricks which men are apt to acquire by living very much alone, but besides, and especially, he became probably the most abstracted and absent man of a profession peculiarly liable to cherish such habits. No man fell so regularly into the painful dilemma of mistaking, or, in Scottish phrase, ' miskenning,' the person he spoke to, or more frequently inquired of an old maid for her 2 18 Scott Country husband, of a childless wife about her young people, of the distressed widower for the spouse at whose funeral he himself had assisted but a fortnight before ; and none was ever more familiar with strangers whom he had never seen, or seemed more estranged from those who had a title to think themselves well known to him. The worthy man perpetually confounded sex, age, and calling ; and when a blind beggar extended his hand for charity, he has been known to return the civility by taking off his hat, making a low bow, and hoping his worship was well." The manse of Smailholm is also sketched in the novel. Dr. Duncan died in the eighty-seventh year of his age and the fifty-eighth of his ministry. A broad *'thruch" stone with a long Latin inscription, in the churchyard of Smailholm, commemorates his piety and learning. The church at Smailholm dates as far back as the twelfth century, and was held, like many of the churches in the locality, by the Priory of Coldingham. Mention has been made of St. Cuthbert and his reputed upbringing at Rhuringaham, or Wrangholm. A constant tradition ascribes his birthplace to the Valley of the Leader, somewhere between Lauder and Earlston. One night, whilst tending his flocks by the riverside, a marvellous vision was vouchsafed to him, no less than the passing of the soul of Aidan, the holy saint of Lindisfarne, borne on angels' wings to heaven. That determined Cuthbert's future, and, hastening to Smailholm and Sandyknowe 19 Old Melrose, he sought an inter\icw with Prior Boisil, and was received as a monk within the shrine by the beautiful bend of the Tweed. Another version speaks of him as living at Wrangholm with Kenspid, a lonely widow, from the age of eight }ears until he entered the service of God. And during those vcars he is alleged to ;ailholm church. have wrought not a few miracles amongst the simple, believing folk of the district. Wrangholm is now extinct, and the only rehc of association with the most famous of the Border saints, and, as he has been styled, the "Saint Patrick of Great Britain, "' is the Coo Stane, {i.e., Cuthbert's Stone), which may be seen in a field a little to the east of the modern farm-steading of 20 Scott Country Brotherstone. There is nothing at all improbable in St. Cuthbert having been brought up here. The Border country is rich in traditions of him, centring chiefly in the Leader Valley, whence, six centuries later, sprang Thomas, the people's Prophet- Bard, and nearly six centuries after that again, him who was the foremost Rhymer and Seer of his race. Reference has also been made to the legend of the Brethren Stanes, so like that of the Twinlaw Cairns in another part of the same county. The two tall slabs of whinstone on the top of Brotherstone Hill, forming a conspicuous landmark in all directions, were placed there, it is said, in memory of a tragic incident of Reformation times, when twin brothers, parted in youth and far-travelled, met again, apparently as strangers, and, hotly disputing over the work of Knox and his followers, came at length to blows, by which both were slain. Most of these old stories Walter Scott would be familiar with in his boyhood. His grandmother, Barbara Hali- burton, born and brought up in the neighbourhood, had known them from her girlhood da\-s, and from her, together with his aunt and the cow-bailie, there were few of them that he did not know. This was the first " making," as his friend Shortreed afterwards put it, of the future novelist. Scott was a precocious child. At three, his grandfather died, and he remembered dis- tinctly the writing and sealing of the funeral letters, and all the ceremonial of the melancholy procession as Smailholm and Sandyknowe 21 it set out from Sandyknowe. At four, he " deaved " the parish minister with his recital of " Hardyknute." At five, he had his introduction to " Shakespeare " in the theatre at Bath, whither he was sojourning for a season, when the play " As You Like It " was presented. "An't they brothers?" he exclaimed, in sincere sur- prise, at the quarrel scene between Orlando and Oliver. It was at Bath, _ ___ too, that he met .-d^^Z/^^ ^sb::— John Home, the ^^^:i=^^ "- -- /^^:^:1- reverend author of " Douglas," himself closely alliedto the Bor- der blood. At six, he drew to- wards him the whole soul of Alison Ruther- ford, the win- some writer of the " Flowers of the Forest." At seven, he was back at Sandyknowe, roaming about with his old friend Ormiston, gathering up a fresh budget of stories, and careering about the fields, and even over the rough crags about the Tower, to the horror of his relatives, on his pet sheltie Marion. By the time he had reached his eighth year he had learned much in the school of Nature. His imagination had been quickened in the 5RETHREN STANES. 22 Scott Country free, unfettered life of the country. The time had gone when in the midst of the thunderstorm he was discovered among the knowes, heedlessl}- and fear- lessly watching the lightning flashes, and crying out in his ecstasy, " Bonnie, bonnie ! dae't again, dae't again!" It was here he had his first comprehension of the weird and awful in Nature, and where also the gentler emotions took hold of him in that first fellowship among the sheep and lambs. That had given his mind, he confessed when he was sixty, on that very spot, to Skene of Ruberslaw, a peculiar tenderness for those animals which it had ever since retained. And so ended the happy days at Sandyknowe with all their sweet child-pictures. There was the coming of Death, the great Interrupter, and other circum- stances, which led to the inevitable giving up of the farm. Those who remained of the family circle removed to Kelso, six miles distant, taking up their residence in what, then called Garden Cottage, is now much altered — beyond recognition, indeed — and known as Waverley Cottage. Young Walter returned to his parents' home in Edinburgh to commence the soberer tasks of school. At the High School he was not long in attaining the Rector's own class — Dr. Alexander Adam, a don in Latinity and profound in Roman antiquities. Notwithstanding his somewhat meteoric flashes, and his professed disregard for the canons of Smailholm and Sandy knowe 23 scholarship, preferring rather thc^ horseplay of the "Yards" to the concentration of the desk, Scott in- gratiated himself with the famous old teacher. He became a kind of favourite pupil, and amonjjj the papers left by Dr. Adam at his death were discovered certain lines carefully wrapped up in a cover, and SCOTT AT THE AGE OF SIX YEARS. inscribed " Walter Scott, July 1783." These are among the first specimens of that poetical genius which, twenty-two years afterwards, was to flash itself on the world. In 1783 Scott left the High School, and almost immediately thereafter we find him at his aunt's cottage at Kelso. The ties were strong and true that bound him to the Tweedside town. And with ^4 Scott Country that same buoyanc}- of spirit which on ver}- similar errands characterized his later life, we can imagine him, while still the slow school-hours moved on, counting forward to the day that was to bring him to the Border. N CHAPTER II THE EARLY YEARS— KELSO AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS One can scarcely estimate the influence of the Kelso years on the life of Scott. At the age of twelve he paid his first lengthened visit to the place, and for at least half a year it was his home. The fresh, pure air from the Tweed, so beneficial to him in earlier life, was to be found also helpful in bracing him up against the too rapid growth which was beginning to tell on his con- stitutional strength. Scott had bright recollections of those months at Kelso. To that time, he tells us, he could trace distinctly the awakening of that delightful feeling for the beauties of natural objects which never deserted him all through life: "the love of natural beauty, more especially when combined with ancient ruins, or remains of our fathers' piety or splendour, became with me an insatiable passion, which, if cir- cumstances had permitted, I would willingly have gratified by travelling over half the globe." He de- scribes Kelso as the "most beautiful if not the most romantic village in Scotland, presenting objects not 20 Scott Country only grand in themselves,- but venerable for their asso- ciation/' The meeting of two superb rivers, the Tweed and the Teviot, both famous in song ; the picturesqueness of their banks ; the ruins of an ancient abbev ; the more distant remains of Rox- WAVERLEY COTTAGE. burgh Castle ; the princely residence of Floors— all combined to render Kelso one of the most desirable spots in the Border country. Modern Kelso is no less attractive. The beauty of the place has grown from more to more since Scott's da)-. Bonnier than ever Kelso and its Associations 27 does it stand by the pleasant banks of the Tweed. So that there are few who will deny to the fine old town its proud but merited title, " Queen of the Borders." It was here that Scott began to gather up his intel- lectual gains and make his friendly conquests. The romantic Smailholm hfe was only a stepping-stone to the richer experience of Kelso. The former was his cradling-ground in romance ; the latter, more than any other place, was the home of his boyhood, where he had his first definite appreciations of the scope and the value of romance. And though it is true that he cared more for the open air than the close confinement of a schoolroom, and to roam by Tweedside or go bird-nesting in the splendid policies of the Floors was more to his taste than a prosy pondering over Persius and Tacitus, still, he made considerable progress in his studies, and became daily more fit for the higher position of a University student-. The old Grammar School of Kelso, which Scott attended during this period, and \\here he seems to have also acted as a kind of pupil-teacher, immediately adjoined the abbey. It is the low building to the left in the illustration. It has long since disappeared. The grave- yard, being practically unenclosed, was turned into a veritable playground, and there was no commoner sight to be seen than a score or so of youngsters climbing the ruined walls of the abbey, prying into the recesses of its dungeons, or making " louping-on stones" of the 28 Scott Country- huge square " thruchs " with which the place abounded. Scott's writings have many references to spots about the abbey, which the }-outhful stor\--teller must have then famiharized himself with. One vault was long used as the tolbooth of the town, and is the original of the prison which the blue-gown Edie Ochiltree de- clared " wasna sae dooms bad a place as it was ca'd. KELSO GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN SCOTT'S DAY. Ye had aye a guid roof ower your head to fend aff the weather, and, if the windows werena glazed, it was the mair airy and pleasant for the summer season. And there were folk enow to crack wi', and he had bread enough to eat, and what need he fash himsel' about the rest o't ?" A strong feature of Scott's boyhood, as of his whole life, was his keenly observant sense. He was "gleg" beyond most of his years, wonderfully quick at Kelso and its Associations 29 questions, shining where cleverer kids had no chance, seeming never to apply himself in the orthodox fashion, yet coming somehow to the front at the fit oppor- tunity. His memory was a marvel of correct impres- sions. He made use of his eyes to the highest advantage, and all these, wedded to a singularly subtle imagination, were capable of producing the most powerful effects. Thus are some of the apparently trifling things in the earlier career of Scott afterwards lit up with a freshness of charm and of interest only possible with one who was a cunning craftsman and strong master of his art. The Rector of the Grammar School during Scott's Kelso }'ears was Lancelot Whale, son of Andrew Whale, parochial schoolmaster of Earlston, a notable teacher, a worthy man, and an early believer in his pupil's future. It was not m.erely a pleasure for him, but there was a feeling of pride in superintending the studies of a scholar from the Metropolitan High School. " In point of knowledge and taste he was far too good," says Scott, " for the situation he held. xMy time with him, though short, was spent greatly to my advantage and his gratification ; as perusing these Latin authors with one who began to understand them was to him a labour of love, I made considerable progress under his instructions." Whale's name w^as charac- teristic of his appearance. He was of prodigious size — between six and seven feet high, almost as grotesque and ungainly as Dominie Sampson himself, to whom 30 Scott Country he is said to have borne other striking resemblances. It was natural for his pupils to indulge in certain puns at the expense of the good man. What youth could have resisted it ? Such epithets as " an odd fish," and sundry references to Jonah, etc., were hurled at his devoted head; while Robert Whale, his son, who became a Surgeon in the army, was dubbed with the more regal title of the " Prince of Wales," the father having in- sisted on him dropping the letter h out of his name. Scott never spoke but with profound respect for his old teacher, yet some biographers, drawing on their imagination, have joked immoderately over Whale, and made use of expressions altogether unworthy of the man whose name — uncouth and unfortunate though it was — is very honourably linked with that of the grandest literary hero of the nation. It was at Lancelot Whale's seminary that Scott's acquaintance began with the brothers Ballantyne, who were destined to come so closely into his life. The Ballantynes were a Border family. John Ballantyne, the father, was a merchant in Kelso, with a shop in the Square, stocked, as the common phrase has it, "with everything, from a needle to an anchor." James, the eldest of his three sons, was born in Kelso in 1770, and was thus a year older than Scott, whom he met for the first time in 1783 as a fellow-pupil at the Grammar School. Between the two boys a com- panionship of no ordinary kind was struck up. Even Kelso and its Associations 31 then Scott had all the charm of the story-teller, and in James Ballantyne he found an eager and untiring listener. It was their almost daily practice to wander by the Tweed, or along the road leading to the old Smailholm home, Scott all the while pouring forth story after story from his apparently exhaustless snppl)-. " He was then," says Ballantyne, "devoted to antiqua- rian lore, and was certainly the best story-teller I ever heard, either then or since. He soon discovered that I was as fond of listening as he himself was of relating ; and I remember it was a thing of daily occurrence that after he had made himself master of his own lesson, I, alas ! being still sadly to seek in mine, he used to whisper to me, ' Come, slink over beside me, Jamie, and I'll tell you a story.' '2/ Ballantyne left school about 1785, and became indentured to a solicitor in Kelso. Scott had returned to Edinburgh, and the intimacy was not resumed until the year 1788, and then only slightly, at the meetings of the University Teviot- dalc Club, to which both Ballantyne, now a Scots Law student, and Scott, who was attending the Civil Law classes, belonged. The former, in 1795, set up as a writer in his native town ; and soon after, in 1797, as the result of a strong representation made to him to establish a newspaper on Conservative lines in opposition to the democratic Britisli Chronicle, he laid his plans accordingly, and founded the Kelso Mail, now the oldest newspaper on the Borders, and one of 32 Scott Country the three Scottish journals of the eighteenth century which are still to the fore in the twentieth century, the others being the Aberdeen Journal and the Glasgow Herald. Once, after a business visit to London, Ballan- tyne had found it necessary to travel on to Glasgow for the purchase of types, and in the stage-coach he found, much to his delight, his whilom schoolmate and friend. A very few miles re-established them on their ancient footing. There was plenty of leisure for talk, and "Mr. Scott was exactly what is called the old man." He abounded, as in the days of his boyhood, in legendary lore. Hour after hour sped on, and with pleasant song and tale they passed the time until Edin- burgh was reached, and, says Ballantyne, "from that day until within a very short time of his death — a period of not less than hve-and-thirty years — I may venture to say that our intercourse never flagged." The later re- lationships of Scott with James Ballantyne and his brother John, as printer, publisher, and partner, are well known. In 1799 there svas issued from the Mail office one of the first of Scott's publications, "An Apology for Tales of Terror," consisting of some nine ballads in a well-printed quarto of seventy-six pages, of which only twelve copies were thrown off. This was the initial effort of what afterwards became the celebrated Border or Ballantyne Press. In 1802 the first two volumes of the " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border " were sent forth to the world from the Kelso Kelso and its Associations :VS press, the elegance and accuracy of whose typography evoked the highest admiration. By the end of 1802 Ballantyne had removed to Edinburgh and set up his small establishment of two printing-presses in the neighbourhood of Holyrood. In 1805 Scott joined JAMES BALLANTYNE. him as copartner, sinking /^5,ooo in the business, and for a time there was brilliant success. In iSog, piqued with Constable, he floated the publishing and book- selling firm of John Ballantyne and Co., which only lasted four years. In 1826, on the collapse of 3 34 Scott Country Constable, the great crash came, the biggest hterary financial failure of the century, which practically left Scott liable to his creditors for no less a sum than £120,000. John Ballantyne died in 1821, and James in 1833. The third brother, Alexander, held in high esteem by Scott, conducted the Kelso Mail from 1806 to 1826. He was the father of the famous author, R. M, Ballan- tyne — favourite of boys all the world over. Another friendship formed b}- Scott during his Kelso sojourn was with Mrs. W'aldie, the Quaker lady of Hendersyde, at whose town-house in the Bridge Street, brought hither by her son, his school-fellow, Robert Waldie, he spent many happ}- hours. The fine library, which now exists much enlarged, at Hendersyde Park the seat of her descendant, attracted him. He was allowed to rummage through it at pleasure, and to carry home any volume he m.ight fancy. Those visits to the Waldies suggested to Scott the sweet Quaker home of Mount Sharon in " Redgauntlet," with its kindly and hospitable inmates, Joshua Geddes and his sister Rachel. What a fulness of pleasure he was able to draw out of those early Kelso associations ! Every da}- new avenues of knowledge in the world of Nature and in books were opening up before him. For one who had felt the witchery of the Sand}knowe peat-fire, with its wealth of ballad and traditionary lore, the perusal of a work like Percy's " Reliques " must have been a reve- Kelso and its Associations 35 lation and a deep well-spring of delight. From the Kelso Library he borrowed the volumes — they are said to be still there — and in his cottage paradise, under the shade of a great spreading plane-tree, he so devoured their pages that time and the ph}'sical necessities were alike forgotten. " I remember well the spot," he sa}s, " where I read these volumes for the first time. It was beneath a huge platanus, in the ruins of what had been intended for an old-fashioned arbour in the garden I have mentioned. The summer day sped onward so fast that, notwithstanding the sharp appetite of thirteen, I forgot the hour of dinner, was sought for with anxiety, and was still found entranced in my intellectual banquet. To read and to remember was in this instance the same thing, and henceforth I overwhelmed my school-fellows, and all who would hearken to me, with tragical recita- tions from the ballads of Bishop Percy. The first time, too, I could scrape a few shillings together, which were not common occurrences with me, I bought unto myself a copy of these beloved volumes ; nor do I believe I ever read a book half so frequently or with half the enthusiasm," This was but the beginning of similar studies, from books, and through that large unwritten literature of history and tradition which was still floating about among the people. At the winter session of 1783 Scott entered the Humanity and Greek classes of the University, but the very next year a recurrence of delicate health 3—2 36 Scott Country sent him back to Kelso. In the interval there had been formed an additional attraction for those years of going and coming between Edinburgh and the Borders. His father's brother, Robert Scott, a naval Captain in the East India Company's service, had retired from his profession, and acquired the pro- perty of Rosebank, on the east side of Kelso, and lying close in to the Tweed. The Captain was Scott's favourite uncle. More, indeed, than the boy's father did he enter with the liveliest, sympath}- into all the plans and pursuits of his nephew. Rosebank canie to be Scott's second home until he had a home of his own. Captain Scott was a bachelor, so he installed his sister, Aunt Jenny, into Rosebank as housekeeper, where she remained until her death in 1805. Another sister, Mrs. Curie, the widow of William Curie, farmer at Yetbyre, in Dumfriesshire, resided at a short distance from Rose- bank. She died in '1826. With frequent visits to Kelso during the summer recesses, and when free for a time from the prosaic routine of a lawyers office — " the dry and barren wilderness of forms and conveyances '" to which Scott had become apprenticed to his father in 17S6 — so the hurrying years swept on. " Scott's life," sa3s Ruskin, " was in all the joyful strength of it spent in the \'alley of the Tweed. Rosebank, in the Lower Tweed, gave him his close knowledge of the district of Flodden Field, and his store of foot-traveller's interest in ever)- glen of Ettrick, Yarrow, and Liddel Water." He made Kelso and its Associations 37 frequent excursions to Norham during this period, and far into Northumberland, missing nothing of note on either Border. With alert eye, clear head, and mar- vellous memory, he made the very best of what was both to be seen and heard. He was " makin' himsel' a' the time," laying up magnificent treasure against the years untried and unknown. Scott was called to the Bar in 1792, and five years later, after a somewhat bitter experience of slighted love, he married the daughter of a French Royalist, Charlotte Margaret Charpentier, or Carpenter, whom he met during a holiday in the English Lake district. They settled down- to a winter domicile in North Castle Street, and for a summer residence a sweet little cottage at Lasswade, " by Esk's fair streams that run," where six happy years of their married life were spent. In 1799 Scott was appointed to the sheriffship of Selkirkshire. In 1804 Captain Scott died at Rosebank, and the property passed to Walter, as his uncle's heir. But he sold it a few months afterwards for ;^5,ooo, much to the chagrin of the shrewd Kelsonians, who declared that the estate had been sacrificed " to meet the extrava- gancies of a graceless nephew." So ended Scott's im- mediate connection with this town of many pleasant memories. Having glanced at Scott's Kelso life, let us look at the town itself and at other of its associations. The place boasts a hoar antiquity. Around the great 38 Scott Country Castle of Roxburgh and the " fair Abbaye " of the " sair sanct," two original townships sprang up. That at Roxburgh became in time an important centre, one of the four principal royal burghs in Scotland, with a church, a school of note, mills, and a mint-house. By-and-by the town of Roxburgh, nestling beneath the castle walls, extended itself with a kind of suburban dignity. To the east arose the new town of Roxburgh, while westward, within what are now the grounds of Floors Castle, there grew up another village community. When, in 1128, the abbey was founded, a new settle- ment gathered around it, and, making rapid exten- sions, became united to its nearest neighbour, the two forming " the town of the chalk-hill " — Calchou or Kelso. The history of Kelso is largely the history of Rox- burgh Castle, the most famous, as it was by far the strongest, of the Border fortresses. Built by the Saxons of Northumbria on a highly defensible position, a natural bulwark on the peninsula between the Tweed and the Teviot, it was held by them for long years as a kind of capital — the Marchidun or Marchmound of their kingdom. As time wore on, and Scotland began to take shape, when we are able to throw off the dust of tradition, and get at the facts of history, the place had become the abode of Da\id I. — his favourite resi- dence, indeed, the Rawicsburg, Rokisburg, or Rox- burgh of days still more stirring. Few castles had Kelso and its Associations 39 a more brilliant or a more chequered story. Here the royal Saint held Court. Here he planned those noble abbeys, whose very ruins are now the boast of the Borderland. Within its walls Alexander H. was married and Alexander III. was born. Many times were the English Sovereigns entertained at Roxburgh RUINED ROXBURGH. with the most regal magnificence. Parliaments met, judges decreed justice, military operations were dis- cussed, and ecclesiastical controversies settled here. In the town beneath weekly markets and great fairs were held.* Money was coined at it. It had a vigorous * St. James's Fair, so named from the patron saint of the place, still held on August 5, and perhaps the most popular gathering on the Borders, may be a relic of those early times. The fair ground is exactly on the site of the ancient town of Roxburgh. 40 Scott Country commercial life. All kinds of interests converged towards it as a great provincial capital. For 300 years it was the most flourishing township on the Borders, wath the stateliest fortress in the most win- some nook of Nature. The scene of many a gay gathering, of many a deed of gallantry, of many a rough shock of battle, too, both perished at length, leaving scarcely a fragment to show where they had stood. In 1460 occurred the most memorable and melancholy siege in Scottish history, when James II. determined to capture the castle from the English, who had long held it. Every man between the age of sixteen and sixty, it is said, was summoned to the task. What a day for Tweedside and the Teviot! The Scottish arms triumphed, and the enemy were driven out; but the pride of victory and joy at having their own again were rudely quenched by the unhappy and untimely death of the soldier-Sovereign. Whilst watch- ing the discharge of a big Flemish gun, the " Lion," about 3,000 pounds in weight, not long introduced into the country, the piece suddenly burst. A heavy splinter struck the King and killed him on the spot. Soon after- wards the castle was ra^ed to the ground and all future attempts to refortify it were without fruit. Standing to-day by the ruins of old Roxburgh, where the sheep crop its green mounds, and the ancient ash-trees bend their branches amid the sole remnants of its once massive masonry, and recalling the memorable scenes • Kelso and its Associations 41 that have been witnessed "in castle and camp, in tower and town " — incidents moulding the character, and out of which grew the consolidation, of the Scottish people, and in which every rank and condition bore a part — one cannot fail to find a suggestive object-lesson of the instability of all earthly affairs and the overthrow that awaits them. John Leyden, with quick, keen insight for a historic past, thus apostrophizes this place of mingled memories : " Roxburgh ! how fallen, since first, in Gothic pride, Thy frowning battlements the war defied, Called the bold chief to grace thy blazoned halls, And bade the rivers gird thy solid walls ! Fallen are thy towers, and, where the palace stood. In gloomy grandeur waves yon hanging wood ; Crushed are thy halls, save where the peasant sees One moss-clad ruin rise between the trees ; The still-green trees, whose mournful branches wave In solemn cadence, o'er the hapless brave. Proud castle ! Fancy still beholds thee stand The curb, the guardian of this Border land, As when the signal flame that blazed afar. And bloody flag, proclaimed impending war ; While, in the lion's place, the leopard frowned, And marshalled armies hemmed thy bulwarks round." Some choice pictures frame themselves through the greenery of the castle mound. One of the finest views of Floors is to be had from this point — a striking contrast, surely, to the desolation round about. The ducal domain of Floors — the French Fleurs (so some- 42 Scott Country times the name is spelled) — is without a rival in the South of Scotland. Sir \\'alter Scott wrote of it that " the modern mansion of Fleurs, with its terrace, its woods, and its extensive lawn, form altogether a kingdom for Oberon or Titania to dwell in, or any spirit who, before their time, might love scenery, of FLOORS CASTLE. which the majesty and even the beauty impress the mind with a sense of awe mingled with pleasure." Probably the earliest reference to the place is in the time of James \'r., when the notorious " Habbie Ker,"' of Cessford, the first Earl of Roxburghe, one of the most powerful noblemen of his time, and one of the most feared, obtained possession of it. The modern Kelso and its Associations 43 palatial abode is the result of a huge scheme of re- construction and ornamentation in 1839 o^i the old house built in 1718 by Sir John Vanbrugh, dramatist and architect, for the first holder of the ducal title. The charming situation of Floors, and the wide sweep of ground attaching to it, the stately parks, the magnifi- cent suite of gardens and conservatories, render it a princely residence not easily surpassed in either Scot- land or England. But we must get back to Kelso. On the way we pass "the meeting of the waters" — the junction of the Teviot and Tweed — a singularly impressive picture, of which Leyden and Andrew Scott of Bowden have both sweetly sung : " Teviot, farewell ! for now thy silver tide Commix'd with Tweed's pellucid stream shall glide." It was just about here where, according to the oft-told tradition, Michael Scot's familiar " bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone " ; and does not that one night's task still attest itself in the existing mill-cauld ? There is a majestic stateliness about the kingly river as it glides past Springwood and beneath Rennie's finely -arched bridge, the model of the Waterloo Bridge at London. The whole charm of the town is in front. Seen from the bridge, or from the higher bend of the road by Maxwellheugh, Kelso looks an ideal township, a very queen among towns ; and there are few who will not 44 Scott Country assent to the feeling of Burns as, during his Border tour, he is said to have gazed upon it from this spot, reverently uncovering and breathing a prayer of thanksgiving to the Almighty. The venerable abbey, " like some antique Titan predominating over the dwarfs of a later world," the shapely spires, the variety of colour, the rich profusion of foliage, the glorious back- KELSO BRIDGE ground of hills with their long wooded strips, and the river right at one's feet, make up a picture which is never forgotten. It' needs once to be seen to be remem- bered. In far-away lands the stranger who has visited Scotland tells, long years afterwards, of that one vision that often rises up before him when he peers back into the past— Kelso Bridge and the silver Tweed. The most noble and notable relic about Kelso is, of Kelso and its Associations 45 course, its Abbey. Though it has neither the romance of Melrose nor the classical associations of Dryburgh, it yet held a prominent place in the ecclesiastical world of its time, and its endowments and benefices were the richest and largest in the kingdom. Founded by David L in 1128 — four years after his coronation, while residing at his favourite castle of Roxburgh — it was dedicated to the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist. A colony of Tironensian monks — a Benedictine Order founded by the Elder St. Bernard — had been settled at Selkirk in 1113, but was transferred to Kelso, and began forthwith the work of rearing the new edifice, which was not completed for at least a hundred years. This abbey is said to be the finest example of the castel- lated style of ecclesiastical architecture in Scotland. In general character it is late Norman, with here and there a touch of Early Pointed work. Many parts exhibit an unusual sweetness of symmetr}-, particularly the north portal, which is much admired. The Kelso monks knew how to blend their religion with the common crafts of the day. Some of them were carpenters, some masons and stone-cutters, others lead and iron workers and artists in stained glass, whilst others, again, were skilful tillers of the soil. It was a main feature of their system to keep themselves constantly employed. Mere seclusion was regarded as an incentive to temptation, and even as a sin. And in this way, by assiduous cultivation of the useful arts and 46 Scott Country their own mental and spiritual discipline, with the exercise of a wise benevolence, did their abbey grow in grace of form and strength of character to be the most influential religious house in Scotland. Its Abbot received the mitre, bringing to the abbey precedence over all monastic institutions in the country. By the time of Baliol and the Second Interregnum it is said to have possessed no fewer than thirty-six churches, several manor-houses, and many lands, granges, farms, mills, breweries, fishings, rights of cutting turf, salt works, and other properties spread over the shires of Roxburgh, Berwick, Selkirk, Peebles, Lanark, Ayr, Dumfries, and even as far north as Aberdeen, and southward in the counties of Northumberland and Durham. In striking historic incident, however, Kelso Abbey is not rich. Within its walls lies the dust of Henry, only son and heir-apparent of the founder. Here also Bishop David de Bernham and other dignitaries were interred. James III. was crowned in the abbey immediately after the tragedy at Roxburgh. Like other abbeys, it had its share of ceremony and festivity. We may be sure it was the scene of many a courtly pageant. There were the times of peace, when civilization progressed by leaps and bounds ; when monk and soldier and citizen vied with each other in the bloodless triumphs of art and learning. Still, the story of Kelso is mostly one of disaster and doom. It is the sad record of the Border abbeys. Kelso and its Associations 47 KELSO ABBEY. 48 Scott Country How keen and determined has been the struggle for the mastery around them ! Each stands, grand and noble in its ruins, a silent witness to the malignity and misplaced zeal that prompted their downfall*. At Kelso the first blow fell during the Independence Wars, when the monastery was laid waste and its inmates reduced to comparative beggary. The building itself appears to have escaped the ravages of that time, for no trace of restoration in the Decorated or Perpendicular style of the period has been found. But neither Kelso nor any other establishment in the Middle Marches was spared the violence of the later English invasions under Dacre, and Surrey, and, worst of all, the haughty Hertford — Henry VHI.'s merciless minions. The final stand at Kelso in 1545 is a pitiful memory. Hertford brought all his strength against the edifice, cannonading its walls and putting the brave defenders to the sword. A few surviving monks and others took refuge in the tower in the hope of being able in some way to save themselves and the church ; but the stout walls had not been built to withstand the shock of English artillery, and could not hold out long. To bring matters to a crisis, a band of foreign mer- cenaries effected an entrance to the abbey just as darkness began to fall. The survivors in the steeple held their own all night, some of them escaping at daydawn. The place, now completely at the mercy of the enemy, was demolished and defaced. Further Kelso and its Associations 49 destruction came from the Reforming zealots of 1560 and 1580, and though the building was afterwards partly restored and used for a time as a Protestant place of worship — as the parish church — its desolation is now complete enough. Of that " No legend needs to tell, For story's pen must fail to write What ruin paints so well." Within the town and in the immediate vicinity are many other objects and places of interest. From the Chalkheugh Terrace, whence Kelso derives its name, a view, rivalling that from the bridge, unfolds itself. " There rolls the Teviot in her crystal pride, Anxious to meet the Tweed — a longing bride ;" while " Blue o'er the river Kelso's shadow lies, And copse-clad isles amid the waters rise." The ever-present Eildons are a prominent feature in the distance. Ruined Roxburgh, and the stately pile of Floors, like some enchanted palace of Eastern fable, appear close at hand. With wealth of wood- land beauty and the sweetest of green meadows, all the qualities forming a perfect landscape are here. One is reminded of the lordly Rhine in the broad sweep of the united rivers, and the whole scene, indeed, wears a kind of Continental aspect. The district of Kelso abounds in pleasing literary 4 50 Scott Country associations in addition to those already mentioned. The next chapter deals at length with the poet of the " Seasons," born at Ednam, in the near neighbourhood. At Roxburgh Churchyard, some two miles from the castle ruins, is the grave of Andrew Gemmels, the "Edie Ochikree" of the "Antiquary." Originally a " EDIE OCHILTREE S GRAVESTONE, dragoon, in active service during the wars of Anne and the first Georges, the last fifty years of his life were spent as a wandering beggar, or gaberlunzie, of the "beadsman" or "blue-gown" class. Few figures were more familiar over the length and breadth of the Border. He made his "calls" at certain houses, Kelso and its Associations 51 generally twice a year, and at most of them was re- ceived rather as an old acquaintance of the family than as a mendicant. Scott met him frequently, and has described him as " a remarkably fine old figure, very tall, and maintaining a soldier-like or military manner and address. His features were intelligent, with a powerful expression of sarcasm. His motions were always so graceful that he might almost have been sus- pected of having studied them ; for he might, on any occasion, have served as a model for an artist, so re- markably striking were his ordinary attitudes. He had little of the cant of his call- ing ; his wants were food and shelter, or a trifle of money, which he always claimed, and seemed to receive, as his due. He sang a good song, told a good story, and could crack a severe jest with all the acumen of Shakespeare's jesters, though without using, like them, the cloak of insanity. It was some fear of Andrew's satire, as much as a feeling of kindness or charity, which secured him the general good reception which he enjoyed everywhere." He died in his hundred and sixth year at Roxburgh, on March 31, 1793. Many anecdotes have been re- 4—2 EDIE OCHILTREE. 52 Scott Country lated of his sarcastic wit and eccentricities. The quaint moulding on the back of his tombstone is an illustration of one of the best known of these. The occasion \\as a St. Boswell's Fair, where a recruiting- sergeant, clad in all the dazzle of cockade and red coat, with medals gleaming on his breast, declaimed in impassioned heroics about the delights of a soldier's life — the glory of it, the patriotism, the plunder, the prospect of promotion for the bold and young, and His Majesty's munificent pension for the old and the wounded. A crowd of gaping rustics were standing round, some of whom the man of war and words hoped, no doubt, to " persuade to the shilling." He had just reached the end of a harangue of more than usual eloquence, when the tatterdemalion Gemmels, stand- ing close behind him, reared aloft his meal - pocks on the end of his kent, or staff, and exclaimed with a tone and aspect of profound derision, " Behold the end o't !" The contrast was irresistible : the beau-ideal of the sergeant and the ragged reality of the ex- dragoon were sufficiently striking : and the former, with his bedecked followers, beat a retreat in some confusion amidst loud and universal laughter. Several names well known in the world of art and letters gather around Kelso. Sir William Fairbairn, the celebrated engineer, began life as a labourer at Kelso Bridge. Sir John Pirie, from a grocer's appren- tice in the Mill ^^'ynd, rose to be Lord Mayor of Kelso and its Associations 53 London. Robert Edmonstone, the artist, hardly reahzed the promise of his genius, dying in the prime of hfe. WiUiam Jerdan, critic and journaHst, had his first experience of newspaper work in a Border printing- office. Horatius Bonar was a Kelso divine for nearly thirty years. Here many of his best hymns were written, and the " Kelso Tracts" are not yet forgotten. In the same church Dr. Robertson Nicoll, the well- known editor and critic, fulfilled an eight-years' ministry. Nor can we forget the genial Thomas Tod Stoddart, prince of Border anglers, and racy rhymer of the rod and reel, the perusal of whose ." Death-wake " sent George Macdonald first to the writing of verse. His daughter, Anna M. Stoddart, is the accomplished biographer of Professor Blackie, whose forbears, too, were natives of " Tempe, on the banks of Tweed." Kelso has its civil and ecclesiastical annalists in Haig, Morton, and Tait. And in his delightful home at Springwood Park, Sir George Douglas, a baronet after Scott's own fancy, essayist and novelist, cultivates well the muse, and as a historian has done signal service in the rich field of Border Literature. CHAPTER III WITH THE POET OF ''THE SEASONS" The Scottish Border is the home par excellence of romance and song. There is scarcely a parish but has produced some singer more or less notable. Some of the very best names in the country's poetical litera- ture are of Border extraction. Sir Walter was the great Minstrel. Next to him on the roll of Border bards are James Hogg and John Leyden, with quite a host of those who have added, and are still adding, to the poetic pile. It is computed that in the Border counties alone there have been somewhere about five hundred persons who have professed some sort of pre- dilection for the " divine art." Not all, of course, are to be claimed as poets "weaving in silvery line the thoughts of man." The majority, it must be con- fessed, are little more than mere stringers-together of rhyme. The number, however, is remarkable for so small an area, and there are not lacking some compositions of real merit — gems of exquisite grace and finish — With the Poet of ^^The Seasons'' 55 amidst much that is of an insipid and ephemeral character. The county of Roxburgh seems to bear the pahn for a contribution to the national minstrelsy which is far more than local. The poets of Teviotdalc arc known and admired all the world over. Of Scott it cannot be otherwise said but that he belongs to all. So do Hogg and Leyden, to be sure, but their scope is more circumscribed. With the exception of a few choice compositions which have laid hold of the multitude, their productions, in large measure, are purely pro- vincial. The poet of " The Seasons " is more in the Scott category. He is not by any means local, though a Borderer and an outstanding one, nor is his verse definitely associated with any particular district, though he dearly loved the Vale of the Tweed and its tributaries. He has been so identified with England from residence, and the whole tenor of his work, that it is somewhat difficult to remember his birth and upbringing. A few direct references are all that his writings show regarding his early life by the Border burnsides and braes. It is little more than two centuries since the birth of James Thomson at Ednam, one of the prettiest parishes on the Borders. Situated only a couple of miles or so to the north-east of Kelso, the visitor should not miss this early shrine of a great poet. Ednam, or Edenham, "the hamlet by the smooth-flowing stream," 56 Scott Country- is one of the oldest ecclesiastical erections in the kingdom. The gift, towards the end of the twelfth century, of King Edgar to Long Thor of Northumbria, who founded a church there in honour of St. Cuthbert, the place has never grown beyond the simple village character which it still presents. Its chief claim to remembrance is the connection it has with the author of "The Seasons" and "Rule, Britannia." Thomson was born at the manse of Ednam* in the September of 1700. The date is disputed, some * It has been allet^ed that he was born in a smaller house adjoin- ing the manse, but this seems to be a mistake. With the Poet of '^The Seasons'^ 57 authorities giving the 7th, others declaring for the nth. It is, at any rate, certain that he was baptized on the 15th. His father, the Rev. Thomas Thomson, a pious, worthy man, son of the gardener to the Edmonstones, who long held the estate of Ednam, was the parish minister, the first after the Revolution, ordained in 1692, when in his twenty-fifth year. His mother was Beatrix Trotter, of Berwickshire descent, daughter of the Laird of \\'ideopen, a small property on Kale ^^'ater, in the parish of Morebattle. The poet was the fourth of their nine children. After eight years of faithful ministry at Ednam, Thomas Thomson was- translated to Southdean, a parish at the south end of the same county, when his son was just two months old. There he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1716. It was at Southdean where James Thomson may be said to have caught the poet's inspiration. Ednam is dear to us as his birthplace, though the old house is long since gone. It is improbable that he ever visited the place in later life, and the picturesque- ness of the spot has not been reflected in his verse. But it is different with Southdean. That parish was his poetic nurse. Here he lived till the age of fifteen, when he entered the University. And during these years he, too, like Scott, was "making himself." The natural features of Southdean are practically the same to-day as during Thomson's youth. By the very land- scapes and nooks of beauty which filled and thrilled his 58 Scott Country boyhood's vision it is possible to catch up the spirit of his imperishable lines. From the modern manse of Southdean, we may look out on the self-same scenes which Thomson saw. Southdean Law is close at hand. The Jed's pure, sparkling stream sweeps past, just as it SOUTHDEAN CHURCHYARD. did when Thomson was a boy. Many a time, too, he must have stood by its bank and beheld it " wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swelled." There behind us rises the dark mass of Ruberslaw — sacred also to John Leyden — while in the distance, bounding the sky- With the Poet of ''The Seasons'' 59 line, is the great Border barrier of Cheviot, with Carter Fell " filling a considerable arc of the horizon." On every side are objects on which the eye of the poet most have rested and that have been limned, with the genius of a great artist, in his immortal pages. Beyond a doubt, those early impressions at Southdean, through the charmed circle of the varying year, fastened themselves with strong, keen feeling upon his affections and memory. He was during this time "a cheerful, happy boy, tracing the windings and playing on the banks of the Jed, visiting the shepherd and the plough- man in the fields, and viewing the whole country round with a delighted eye. Rocks, vales, rivers, and woody heights nourished his poetic taste, and his early writings show the keenness of his observation. His mind whilst living at Southdean became full of picturesque images, and nearly all were transferred in later life to the pages of his poetry." For three years the youth attended the Grammar School of Jedburgh, then kept in an aisle of the abbey, eight miles distant, and with frequent visits to Ancrum, Hobkirk — where lived his good friend Ric- calton — Minto, and Marlefield-on-Kale,* his education was pursued amid the most congenial environment. James Thomson was destined for the ministry of the * In Eckford Parish, believed by some to be the scene of the " Gentle Shepherd." Sir William Bennet was the friend of Ramsay and Thomson, and both poets were his frequent guests. 60 Scott Country Church of Scotland, but certain difficulties cropped up, and, dissatisfied otherwise with himself, he drifted into literature. It is said that the Professor of Divinity declined to sustain his trial discourses, or, at all events, criticised them somewhat unkindly. But he did not care for the ministry, and it was perhaps just as well. To be a literary man and a Londoner was the summit of his ambition, and he attained it. The first part of " The Seasons " — " Winter " — w^as published in 1726, and brought him a paltry three guineas. But that was only the first rung of the ladder ; by-and-by he climbed it, step by step, to fame and popularit}'. When he died, he was just turning forty-nine — the age at which his father had succumbed — and in spite of much ex- asperating indolence he accomplished a genuine bit of work for his country. Even if he had written nothing else but "Rule, Britannia," which is unquestion- ably his own composition, that would be sufficient to inscribe him amongst the immortals. That lyric was never more popular than at the present period. And so the son of the Ednam manse, the dreamer of the Southdean hills, the disappointed divinity student, stands high upon Honour's scroll. To him, after a century and a half, must be accorded due recogni- tion as one who has helped to weld together the vast British Empire, by the verses which have been burned into every loyal heart. One rejoices that a man of the Border blood has had so large a share in With the Poet of '^The Seasons" 61 binding into a closer union the Motherland and her children. James Thomson had all a patriot's fire, if his verses are not always characterized by stirring martial appeals or glorification of the historic. He was essentially the poet of peace — a man whose com- munings with Nature quickened his imagination as nothing else could, and sent him singing of her calm, sweet victories "more renowned than war." And the religious element was by no means lacking. His poems show him to have been a profoundly fervent soul. Who but one of the deepest spiritual reverence could have uttered the prayer : " Father of light, and Hfe ! thou Good Supreme I O teach me what is good, teach me Thyself, Save me from folly, vanity and vice, From every low pursuit, and feed my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure. Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss !" While most of Thomson's work, as has been said, was achieved in England, in the midst of other scenes no less romantic, yet his heart was ever going back to the old home-haunts — to Tweedside, " whose pastoral banks first heard my Doric reed"; to the " sylvan Jed," and the " Braes of Soudan " (the local pronunciation of Southdean), and the " rough skirts of stormy Rubers- law " — and it is these and other memories which are constantly coming up in his winsome word-paintings. Very Scottish is Thomson's picturesqueness. No 62 Scott Country- poetry was ever truer to Nature. Artificialism is entirely absent from it. He pours forth his numbers so vigorously, yet so vvitchingly and so harmoniously, as only one could who had been a rapt and devoted student of every phase of his subject. Next to the enjoyment of Nature herself must be acquaintanceship with those noble strains of Nature's great poet — "our earlier Wordsworth." It is possible that there are more readers of " The Seasons " than one imagines, and though Thomson's chief poem is not so well remembered as it might be, still, there does not seem to be any fear for its author's name being forgotten as a leading light in the realm of English undefiled. The recent bicentenary celebrations and the republication of some of Thomson's best work will give a fresh stimulus to study him as a master of pure and beautiful expression. Memorials to the poet of " The Seasons " there are several. Westminster Abbey shrines him in her Poets' Corner. Within Richmond Church, where his dust reposes, a tablet records his virtues, and in his old haunts around Kew Lane there are many memories of the bard. At Dryburgh, the Earl of Buchan set up by the Tweed the Temple of the Muses. A fine window in Southdean Church commemorates his genius, and the gravestone of his father has been restored in perennial brass. On the Ferney Hill, near his birth- place, the Ednam Club erected in 1820 a substantial With the Poet of '' The Seasons " G3 obelisk, 52 feet in height, bearing the inscrip- tion : " In memory of James Thomson, author of 'The Seasons,' born at Ednam nth September, a.d. 1700." Lord Buchan was the originator of the Club, which met for the lirst time in 1791, on the anniversary of the THE EDNAM MONUMENT. poet's birth, and continued its meetings until .1819. A miniature of the poet, from the portrait by Slaughter, was presented to the Club by his lordship, and is now kept in the manse. For the gathering of 1791 the Earl solicited the presence of Robert Burns, and hinted that an ode 64 Scott Country from him would be expected for the occasion. But Burns was in the middle of his harvest at Ellisland, and could not spare the time. He sent, however, the w^ell-knovvn "Address to the Shade of Thomson,"' full THE THOMSON MINIATURE. of tender touches and a lo\-ing sympath}' with the "sweet Poet of the Year." " So long, sweet Poet of the Year, Shall bloom that wreath thou well hast won : While Scotia, with exulting tear, Proclaims ihat Thomson was her son." Yet within a twelvemonth he had composed a second set of verses, which are not so familiar, in a very different With the Poet of ''The Seasons'' 65 strain, and rather derogatory to the noble lord whose self-adulation seems to have been a sorry feature of the festival : " Dost thou not rise, indignant Shade, And smile wi' spurning scorn, When they wha wad hae starv'd thy life, Thy senseless turf adorn ! " Helpless, alane, thou clamb the brae, Wi' mickle, mickle toil. And claught the unfading garland there, Thy sair-won, richtfu' spoil. " And wear it thou, and call aloud This axiom undoubted — Wouldst thou hae nobles' patronage ? First learn to live without it ! "To whom hae much, shall yet be given. Is every great man's faith ; But he, the helpless, needfu' wretch. Shall lose the mite he hath." Notwithstanding the Earl of Buchan's eccentrici- ties and the fulsome flattery he was continually evincing, the practical interest which he took in Thomson is one of the most commendable acts in his career. It was mainly through his efforts that the public appreciation of the poet grew in intensity, which cooled somewhat about the middle of the century, but was again rekindled at its close with fresh vigour and enthusiasm, as seen in the highly- 5 66 Scott Country successful demonstrations of igoo both at Ednam and Southdean.* Before taking leave of Ednam, two points of interest may be noted. One is the somewhat questionable statement that when Thomson's father was minister of the parish the parents of the celebrated Captain Cook were amongst his hearers, and that the grand- father of the great navigator, "John Cuke," was an elder in 1692. The other is the birth, at Ednam West Mains, in 1793, of Henry Francis Lyte, the writer of the favourite h}-mns, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," " Sweet is the solemn voice that calls," "Pleasant are Thy courts above," "Jesus, I my cross have taken," and many others equall}- beautiful and ennobling. Lyte was Rector of Brixham, a fishing- town on the shores of Torbay. He died at Nice in 1847. * It may be recalled that Sir Walter Scott engaged to write a Life of Thomson "from some original materials," but the work, unfortunately, was never accomplished.— See Lockhart, vol. iii. CHAPTER IV THE GYPSY CAPITAL In the old centuries the Scottish Border was seldom without the presence of royalty at one or other of its great castles. David I. and the Alexanders loved to dwell by Tweed and Jed, and the Jameses and Queen Mary had a warm side to the Border homes. But the pride of state has not disappeared from the Border country. It still retains certain pretensions to royal favour, and can boast of a King and royal residence within its fair domain. As recently as 1898 there was celebrated with quaint ceremony the coronation of Charles Faa Blythe, the latest and probably the last kingly representative of a race perhaps the most mys- terious in history. In him the gypsy monarchy has been restored, though not to anything like its former importance and dignity, for the reign of the Romanys, in Scotland at least, is almost over, and amid the improving march of time will have soon passed away altogether. Still, the story of the gypsies and their settlement on the Borders has its own interesting 5—2 68 Scott Country features, and in a study of the Scott Country it can hardly be omitted. Sir Walter came into frequent touch with members of the tribe. As a 3-outh he was familiar with their camp-fires and their predatory perambulations, and in later life, as laird and Shirra, thev came more immediately under his notice. It would have been strange, therefore, to find this peculiar people absent from his pages. In " Ouentin Durward " he gives some account of the French gypsies in Louis XL's time, and there are many references throughout the novels to gypsy customs and character. But "Guy Mannering" is the great masterpiece of gypsy fiction, and its heroine, as Ruskin has not in- appropriately styled ■' Meg Merrilies,"' with loyal heart and fiery natural eloquence, is certainly the "most romantic among Scott's many weird women."" Yetholm, long famous as the headquarters of the Scottish gypsies, lies among the Roxburghshire up- lands, nestling pleasantly in the beautiful Vale of the Bowmont, a short distance from the Border. From Kelso the road winds in a gradual ascent for some seven miles amid the quiet, picturesque scenery common to the Lowlands. Here there is nothing specially striking about it, but some fine distance views are obtained, and on the way we pass several places of more than local note. Yonder is Blakelaw, the birth- place of Thomas Pringle, one of the founders and first editors of Blackwood's Magazine, a philanthropist, and The Gypsy Capital 69 poet of no mean repute, whose " Autumnal Excursion " and " African Sketches " are still lovingly remem- bered. One of the most touching of Border lyrics is Pringle's " Emigrant's Farewell," beginning: " Our native land — our native vale— A long and last adieu ! Farewell to bonnie Teviotdale, And Cheviot mountains blue." Born in 1789, he died at London in 1834. The twin villages of Town and Kirk Yetholm, on opposite sides of the Bowmont Water, creep close up under the shadow of the Cheviots. How delightful the old-world air that seems to hover around the place, as, " quietly turning its back upon the morning sun, it sleeps in the midst of the green fells," far removed from the fretful toil and grind of modern life, a cosy little world of its own, hid well in Nature's lap, full of pastoral peace and felicity ! There is no particular history about Yetholm, but from its proximity to England raid and foray were no doubt frequent. From Flodden Field only a few miles distant, large numbers of the slain heroes, so tradition tells, were brought and buried in the village church- yard, the nearest consecrated ground in Scotland. The chief claim of the place to recognition, however, is the charming character of its situation, and the romantic associations that cling to it as the capital of Scottish Gypsydom. Of late years, indeed, Yetholm has attained no small celebrity as a summer resort. With ^0 Scott Country atmospheric conditions as near perfection as possible, and the sweet, undisturbed sechision which the hill- locked glens afford to the tired and jaded soul, one is not surprised at its popularity and the difficulty that is sometimes experienced in finding accommodation at a health-retreat not yet fully developed. For to Yet- holm, as to others of the Border uplands, there seems the promise of a bright and an abundant future. But long before it was "discovered" as a country of pure bracing airs, and an ideal spot in which to dream away an idle holiday, it had been the abode for many years of a people who loved the solitudes, and for whom Yetholm had become, like Jerusalem of old to the Jew, the royal city, a place of defence amongst the mountains. Who and whence are the gypsies is a problem that does not seem to admit of a satisfactory- solution. They have been the subject of much specula- tion and many theories, yet nobody knows definitely about them. For a long time the prevailing idea was that they were an ancient race of people from Egypt. The great student of prophecy. Dr. Keith, looked upon them as an evidence of the fulfilment of Ezekiel's words, " I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries." The Scottish gypsies greatly strengthened that opinion by styling themselves " Lords and Erles of Litell Egypt, assuming this title on account of the common belief, and in order to give themselves importance in the eyes The Gypsy Capital 71 of the people and of the magistracy. That they re- present no less than the Lost Ten Tribes is a belief cherished by some even among themselves. With the Jew they have several things in common, and the complexional resemblances are striking — black hair, dark eyebrows, keen, penetrating eyes, and swarthy, 72 Scott Country- olive colour. They have been conjectured also as of Indian extraction, descendants of a low caste of natives driven out of their country at the Tamerlane (Timur Beg) conquest in 1408, but well-established facts seem to disprove this latter theory. Easterns they certainly are, with touches distinctly Oriental, and a patois akin to the New Indian dialects of the Punjab, but their real origin remains undiscovered. It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that they arrived in Scotland. With aristo- cratic and high-sounding names they appeared upon the scene, and for a time won their wa}' to ro)al regard and protection. Their style of living, picturesque appearance, splendid physical qualities, talent for music, and apparent wealth, all combined to gain for them the goodwill of the people. James IV. com- mended their chief, Anthonius Gawino, to the King of Denmark. In 1530 " they dansit before James \'. in Halyrudhous."' Queen Mary, doubtless from her foreign likings, looked kindly upon them. But under James VI. they fell upon evil times. In his reign, ranked as rogues and vagabonds, they were subjected to the severest penalties. Scores of them perished on the gallows, the galley-ship, and by drowning. But during the foreign wars and the incessant clan-feuds at home many sought for military service, and found favour as fearless and chivalrous fighters, and from an act of heroism performed by a soldier-gypsy to Captain The Gypsy Capital 73 David Bennet, the Laird of Kirk Yetholm, at the siege of Namur in 1695, they are said to have been allowed to settle on his Yetholm estate, which con- tinued their chief centre. The commonest gypsy names are those of Baillie, Blythe, Douglas, Geddes, Gordon, Marshall, Ruther- ford, Ruthven, Shaw, Tait, Winter, and Young. The royal family were the Faas, who claimed descent from the Pharaohs, and declared that Faa was only a corruption of the name. The Faas figure not in- frequently in Scottish history, and were connected by marriage with several noble Scottish houses. One of their number represented the Jedburgh Burghs in Parliament from 1734 to 1741, and others held various responsible positions. It was a Faa, Sir John of Dunbar, who was the hero of the ballad " The Gypsy Laddie " — the real lover of Lady Jean Hamilton, daughter of the first Earl of Haddington, and wife of the sixth Earl of Cassilis. The story of their elope- ment and its tragic denouement is well known : " They were tifteen valiant men, Black, but very bonnie ; And they all lost their lives for ane — The Earl of Cassilis' lady." A more notable member of the family was Jean Gordon, the prototype of " Meg Merrilies," born at Yetholm about 1670. Jean is probably the best known of all the gypsy tribe. The Introduction and Notes to " Guy 74 Scott Country Manncring " furnish some interesting particulars of her career. A remarkable-looking figure, nearly six feet in height, and a perfect Amazon in strength, many anecdotes have been related of her. She is said to have traced, like a very bloodhound, the murderer of her husband to Holland, thence back to Ireland, where she had him seized and taken to Scotland to meet his doom on the gallows-hill at Jedburgh. " \\d\, Jean, ye have got Rob Johnstone hanged at last and out o' the way," someone said to her shortly afterwards. '" Aye, gudeman," replied Jean, lifting up her apron by the two corners, " and a' that fu' o' gowd hasna dune it." Jean's death occurred at Carlisle in 1746 under circumstances of shocking barbarity. She was an ardent Jacobite, and roused the wrath of a strong anti-Stuart rabble in that town to such a pitch that they ducked her to death in the river Eden. "It was an operation of some time," says Scott, " for Jean was a stout woman, and struggled hard with her murderers, often got her head above water, and, while she had voice left, continued to exclaim at such intervals, ' Charlie yet ! Charlie yet !' When a child and among the scenes which she frequented, I often heard these stories, and cried piteously for poor Jean Gordon." " My memory is haunted," he adds, " with a solemn remembrance of a woman of more than female height, dressed in a long red cloak, who commenced acquaint- ance by giving me an apple, but whom, nevertheless. The Gypsy Capital 75 I looked upon with much awe. I conceive this woman to have been Madge Gordon " — Jean's grand-daughter, the recognised Queen of the Yetholm clans in Scott's CHARLES 11., Till-: GVPSV day, who is said to have sat as the representative of the person of " Meg Merrilies," if Jean Gordon was the prototype of her character. Within recent times some outstanding Sovereigns 76 Scott Country- have occupied the Yetholm throne. There was old Wull Faa II., sportsman and smuggler, though " no dark Jeddart prison e'er closed upon him "' — a universal favourite— who died in 1847, at the age of ninety-six. After him, dying without issue, came his nephew, King Charles I., who reigned fourteen years — somewhat of a THE GVPSV PALACE. student, stocked with Border lore, on friendly terms with Scott, who encouraged him to camp about Abbotsford. Esther, his daughter, was Queen from 1861 toi883 ; and, after a lengthened interregnum, her son as Charles II. now wears the royal scarlet. The King is " a hale old man of over seventy, with a hne gyps}- face. He is The Gypsy Capital 17 said to be intelligent, and — an important point — strictly upright in all his ways. He began life as a farm- servant. Later he was engaged at the construction of some of the English railways, but the nomadic instinct asserted itself, and he took to hawking. After travelling the country for thirty-five years he settled down in Kirk Yetholm." His abode is, of course, the Palace, NTERIOR OF THE PALACE. a neat, comfortable - looking cottage on the village green. Great ceremonies attended the new King's accession three years ago. Vast throngs flocked to Yetholm, with no inconsiderable gathering of his own followers and the usual gypsy retinue, caravans and asses galore. The whole affair was a clever, if some- what ludicrous, aping of a coronation at Westminster. 78 Scott Country The "hereditary Archbishop of Yetholm "' placed the crown — a brass one studded with big imitation jewels — on His Majesty's head with these words : "I hereby crown Charles Faa' Blythc as King of Yetholm Gypsies wherever they are, challenge who dare, and I summon all his loyal people to do him respect and homage. Long live the King !" Then the " Chan- cellor" said he was commanded by His Majesty to thank his subjects for the honour conferred upon him, and to say that it would be his earnest desire and endeavour to rule his people wisely and well, and he trusted that his loyal subjects in the regal villages of Kirk and Town Yetholm would live in peace and prosperity under his sway. The occasion was a unique one, and is not likely to occur again, for Scottish gypsydom is doomed. Their occupation as homers, muggers, and tinklers, as besom and basket makers, is almost gone. PoHce Acts prevent them from squatting and encamping on their former favourite haunts. Driven from the high- way to the house, and from the house to field and factory, they are gradually " losing caste '' and becoming absorbed in the common population of the country. Their children, like others, are under School Board supervision, and in the matter of religion — long an unknown quantity in gypsy experience — they take their places reverently and respectably in the sanctuary, and many of them are bright ornaments of Christian faith and practice. CHAPTER V " EDEN SCENES ON CRYSTAL JED " The line which gives title to this chapter is from Burns's " Epistle to Creech/' written at Selkirk : " Up wimpling, stately Tweed I've sped, And Eden scenes on crystal Jed," and very happily describes the magnificent scenery of the district. No visitor to Jedburgh should miss making the half-dozen or so miles' drive or walk up the lovely vale of the Jed. When last we passed through its sylvan shades, the first flushes of autumn were just beginning to appear, and the glory of a September sun reflecting itself on the red scaurs of the river and the glorious woodlands overhead, with the ceaseless windings of the stream, clad from bank to bank in the choicest of colours, turned the picture into one never to be forgotten. It was in the summer of 1787 when Burns made his journey up the Jed, and his fine phrase — none too flattering — was doubtless the summing-up of a somewhat similar experience. It has been affirmed that in the few miles of Jed water above 80 Scott Country the town there are to be found more of the elements of fine landscape than during a whole day's ride in the most favourite Scottish haunts. " The rockiness of the river's bed, the briskness of its current, the pure- ness of its waters, the endless combinations of slope and precipice, of haugh and hillock, of verdure and ,^-^^re^ FERNIHEKST. escarpment, of copse and crag, produce many a scene of picturesqueness and romance." History, too, sheds its glamour over it, and the best native poetry, in Burns, Scott, Thomson, Leyden, and others, has voiced its charms. Here are the Capon Tree and the King of the Wood — immemorial oaks, the last relics of " Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed " 8 1 " Jedworth's forest wild and free." Hard by there is Ferniherst of the " cappit Kers," Wardens of the Middle Marches : " Old Ferniherst, whose battled keep Still towers embosomed in the woods," and, from its recent restoration, likely to continue towering. It is long since the days of Dacre and the redoubtable " Dand " Ker. What desperate fight- ing has there been by this sturdy old stronghold ! And how profound and soothing Nature's sweet solitude around it to-day ! All sorts of memories live by Jed stream. The Hundalee caves recall the Gadeni, the primitive inhabitants of the valley. Camp traces are frequent. The crumbling peel-house looks out from many a knowe. At Lintalee, where are the remains of an extensive camp, the "good Sir James Douglas," Bruce's greatest captain, inflicted signal defeat on the English shortly after Bannockburn. Here and there we meet with the more hallowed associations of Kirk and Covenant. Some four miles up the river is the site of one of the original Jedworths, still retaining the name of Old Jedburgh, a few grassy mounds marking the spot. The charm of Jedburgh itself consists in a kind of old-world character that clings to it, and in the half-Continental traces which it exhibits. It reminds one, too, in some respects, of an English cathedral town ; and there are not wanting certain resemblances 6 82 Scott Country to the Capital of Scotland. With a thousand memories of the past clustering about it, Jedburgh is perhaps the most historic place in the Scottish Lowlands. Bishop Ecgred of Lindisfarne, its ninth - century founder, could not have chosen a cosier corner in which to rear his sanctuary and the little township that grew up beside it. Nestling in the quiet valley, and creeping up the ridge of the Dunion, the song of the river ever in its ears, freshened by the scent of garden and orchard, and surrounded by finely-wooded heights, Nature has ^'Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed'' 83 been lavish in filling with new adornments, as years sped on, a spot always bright and fair. " O softly, Jed ! thy sylvan current lead Round every hazel copse and smiling mead, Where lines of firs the glowing landscape screen, And crown the heights with tufts of deeper green." Notwithstanding the modern beauty and peace of the place, Jedburgh's history has been troubled and chequered. It was a frontier town, the first place of importance north of the Cheviots, within ten miles of the Border, and almost from the first a scene of strife and bloodshed. Around it lay the famous Jed Forest, rivalling that of Ettrick for the place it holds in the country's annals. From an early period it was a favourite rendezvous of the Scottish armies in their frequent onslaughts against our " auld enemies" of England. At the kirk of Southdean the chiefs under the doughty Douglas assembled for the fight at Otter- burn, and there is not a parish in the county but has some memory of those dark and desperate days. The men of Jedburgh were conspicuous for bravery in the bitter struggles during the period of Scotland's " making." They were to be found in every encounter, striking terror to the heart of every antagonist by their wild, piercing slogan — " Jethart's here" — and their dexterous, death-dealing handling of the Jethart axe, 6—2 84 Scott Country or staff— their own invention — a stout steel-headed pole four feet long, the use of which more than once, it is recorded, turned the tide of battle. But Jethart men had to face disaster as well as success. Even their good broadswords and ponderous axes failed them under the overmastering might of numbers. Not once nor twice in Jedburgh's story has the town, both in castle and abbey, faUing a prey to the invader, become a mass of smouldering ruins. In 1410 it was burned and pillaged by the English, and again in 1464 and 1523, and, worst of all, in 1544 and 1545, when Evers and Hertford wrought devastation through all the fair Border. But they kept up the fighting temper, and proved their prowess. At almost the last of the long line of clan-fights — that known as the Raid of the Reidswire (a pass of the Cheviots on Carter Fell), in 1575' celebrated in one of the most spirited of the Border ballads, it was Jethart men, headed by their Provost, coming up in the nick of time, who saved the day for the Scots. And at Flodden we know how the sons of the Forest, both of Jed and Ettrick, bore the brunt of battle, and were "a' wede away" on that darkest of dark fields. Perhaps it was natural in the old fighting days for certain ideas to go forth which had no real foundation in fact. One was that the Jedburghers were a blood- thirsty and cruel set, with no sense of justice or fair play; that they punished first and then pronounced '* Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed" 85 sentence. Hence arose the phrase "Jethart justice," like the Devonshire " Lydford Law" — " How in the morn they hang and draw, And sit in judgment after." In a kind of opprobrious fashion the phrase has been fastened about the necks of the good folks of Jedburgh, who are in no way responsible for it. It arose three centuries ago, through the summary execution of a band of Border marauders at the instance of Sir George Home, first Earl of Dunbar, a nobleman of note in James VI. 's reign. The most imposing object about Jedburgh is, of course, its abbey, bearing still upon it m choir and tower traces of the enemy's fire. Completer than Kelso and Dryburgh, and simpler and more har- monious than Melrose, it stands in the most delightful of situations, girt about with well-kept gardens, over- looking the bosky banks of the Jed— a veritable poem in Nature and Art. It is this, indeed, which gives the ruin half its grandeur. More than likely the Abbey of Jedburgh occupies the site of Ecgred's fane, built about the middle of the ninth century. For 300 years, at least, a little settlement of devout men would be centred here, gradually bringing the countryside under the benign, civilizing influence of Christianity. They lived and did their good work, then passed away, and to their successors of the twelfth century— men 86 Scott Country thrilled with the same devoted spirit — a new, joyous epoch came, when the royal master himself, David, the " sair sanct," sought out their sweet nook, and planted the first of his great Border abbeys. There is probably no other country district that can boast of having within so small a compass so grand a group of eccle- JEDBURGH ABBEY. siastical buildings as those which lie, all within a few miles of each other, by the banks of the Tweed and Jed. Here were established in the first half of the twelfth century, and within a period of thirty years, four great religious houses by the same founder, which were destroyed at the same time by the same ruthless ** Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed '' 87 hands four centuries afterwards, and now stand in ruin equally desolate and equall\- interestinj^. The oldest is that of Jedburgh, founded as a priory about iii8, and raised to the dignity of a monastery towards the end of David's reign. Endowed with vast wealth, and dedicated to the Virgin, it was tenanted by a colony of Augustinian friars from St. Ouentin's Abbey, at Beauvais, in France. The edifice which now rears its head in ruined glory — "the pride of Teviotdale " — is supposed to have been completed within eighty years from its foundation, and there was being constantly added to it large gifts of property in churches, in lands, and mone}-. Within its walls many notable functions were celebrated, chief among them being the second marriage, in 1285, of Alexander ITT., the last of the Celtic line of Kings, to Joleta, daughter of the French Count de Dreux. The weird tradition of the nuptial merrymaking is known to most, how the hilarity of the occasion was rudely quenched by the appearance of a spectral form, described as resembling Death, gliding in and out amongst the dancers, and as suddenly vanishing whilst the company were gazing upon it in consternation. It must be remembered that the last years of the thirteenth century were rife with superstition. It was the period of Thomas the Rh3mer and Michael Scot, and of universal behef in the " black art." And the dance was probably only a part of a new pageant prearranged by some clever trickster for 88 Scott Country the royal revels — the pageant, it may have been, of the dance of Death, familiar enough in the late Middle Ages, though unknown in Scotland up to that time. The new union of Alexander was regarded with some apprehension, and the national outlook being of the gloomiest character, it was given out that Death himself had appeared to warn the King and the people of his impending doom. \\'hen, therefore, only a few- months later, the blow fell in the tragedy at Kinghorn, and the little Norway Maid remained the sole hope of Scotland, the story of the ghost that danced at Jedburgh was more firmly believed than ever, and passed into the page of history as an incident of the supernatural with a very real and terrible meaning. At the height of its power and fame Jedburgh Abbey must have presented a striking appearance. Even yet in ruin no other building in the country has quite the same quiet and lofty air of dignity. Frequently battered and burned, it shows four different periods of restoration. The style is principal!}- Norman and Earl}- Decorated, and several unique features in door and window- archi- tecture are among the finest extant specimens of the art. The Castle of Jedburgh stood at the town-head, where the rough hill-road begins its steep slope across the Dunion. Its site is now filled by the county prison, erected in 1823. It appears to have been a building of enormous strength, and was a favourite residence ^^Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed'' 89 of the early Sovereigns. Passing through the usual vicissitudes of such strongholds, and often held by the English, it was destroyed in 1409 by the men of Teviotdale themselves, after a prolonged struggle, rather than allow it to be again usurped by the enemy. An interesting little interlude in the story of Jed- burgh, which might have been fraught with momentous national issues, occurred in 1566, when Queen Mary and a considerable retinue visited the town. Her errand was to restore order on the Borders, whose lawlessness had increased beyond all bounds. She held an assize for a week, and at its close set out in hot haste by way of Hawick, for Hermitage Castle, amongst the Liddes- dale wilds, where the Earl of Bothwell, her lover and lieutenant, lay sick and wounded from a sv/ord-thrust by the famous freebooter, " little Jock Elliot." The Queen returned to Jedburgh the same night, after riding close on fifty miles across the hard bridle-paths of the hills, and over many a soft, slippery track by moor and fenside. At one place her palfrey is said to have stumbled into a morass — still called the Queen's Mire — and was extricated with difficulty. No wonder that the long, weary, perilous journey, the excitements of the day, and the trials that were beginning to close so thick and fast around her, should have told on her strength, and driven her into an almost mortal illness. For thirty days she lay in fevered weakness in the quaint, bastle-looking building in the Back-Gate, which 90 Scott Country- bears her name. This is one of the most historic houses in the locahty, and, notwithstanding much recent improvement, has altered Httle since Mary's day. A large fruit-garden encircles it, extending down to the river, ^^'hat was the Queen's room looks out QCEEN MARYS TOWER. on this garden, and there may still be seen on the wall a broad stretch of pictorial tapestry— the meeting of Jacob and Esau — believed to be the work of the royal maids durins; that memorable visit. The bed ''Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed'' 91 which the Queen occupied was presented to Sir Walter Scott, and forms the carved panelling of " Speak-a-bit" at Abbotsford. When the dark and troubled days gathered round the unfortunate Queen, and Fotherin- gay was not far distant, she is said to have been often heard exclaiming in the anguish of a broken spirit : " Would that I had died at Jedburgh !" Better, indeed, had the end come then. The literary associations of Jedburgh, and its connec- tion with Sir Walter Scott, are of outstanding interest. Scott bore a deep affection for the old burgh, and was a frequent visitor. His uncle, Thomas Scott, lived at Monklaw, in the neighbourhood, and there were other attractions that drew him to the district. At the Circuit Court in 1793 he made his first appearance as criminal counsel, pleading successfully for his client, a noted poacher and sheep-stealer. "You're a lucky scoundrel," Scott whispered to him when the verdict had been given. " I'm just o' your mind," was the reply, "and I'll send you a maukin the morn, man." One of Scott's closest associates was the Sheriff-Substitute of the Shire, Robert Shortreed, in whose company the famous Liddesdale "raids" were made. Short- reed was a man after Scott's own heart, full of the Border spirit, and, from his wide acquaintance, of the greatest service in the ballad-hunting business. Many a long ride among the hills they had together. " He was," says Scott, "a merr}- companion, a good singer and mimic, and full of Scottish drollery. In his com- 92 Scott Country panv and under his guidance I was able to see much of rural society in the mountains, which I could not otherwise have obtained, and which I have made my use of. He was in addition a man of worth and character. ■■ With Scott for cicerone, the Words- worths visited Jedburgh in 1803, lodging at No. 5, Abbey Close, In the " Matron of Jedburgh/" the Lake poet paid a kindly tribute to the "'' character and domestic situation " of his hostess. The party walked up the Jed as far as Ferniherst, and in the evening Scott read from the unpublished manuscript of the '■ Lay.'" James Veitch, the self-taught natural philosopher, was another of Scott's intimates. In his quiet study at Inchbonny, close to the famous Huttonian Section, which marks the difference between the Silurian and the Old Red Sandstone, he was visited by the leading scientific men of the day. " When are you coming amongst us in Edinburgh to take your place with our philosophers ?" Scott used to say to him, and the reply would be: "I will think of that, Sir \\'alter, when vou become a Lord of Session." Sir David Brewster, born at Jedburgh in 1781, son of the Rector of the Grammar School, spent much of his boyhood in Veitch's work- shop, and no doubt then laid the foundation of his great future career. Jedburgh added another eminent name to the world of science and letters in the gifted Marv Somerville, whose uncle and father-in-law, Dr. '' Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed '* 93 Somerville, the historian of Queen Anne's reign, was parish minister for fifty-seven years. Dr. Macknight, the commentator, was also incumbent at Jedburgh, and the younger Thomas Boston, one of the Rehef founders, ministered in the town for a time. Thomas Davidson, the " Scottish Probationer," asleep on the sunny slope of Castlevvood Cemetery, has an assured place in all hearts. Few, in a brief lifetime, were more lovable or more lamented. Born at Oxnam Row m 1838, he died at Bankend in 1870. Jedburgh's his- torians, Alexander Jeffrey and James Watson, must be mentioned, and Lord Chancellor Campbell, whose grave is in the south aisle of the abbey. At No. 9, Castlegate, Prince Charlie lodged on his way South after Prestonpans. Burns " put up " at No. 27, Canongate, received the freedom of the burgh, fell in love with " sweet Isabella Lindsay," and left the town with the parting words : " Jed, pure be thy crystal streams, and hallowed thy sylvan banks!" Of Scott and Jedburgh there is one other memory — a painful one, but much exaggerated by Lockhart, and concerning which Scott himself seems to have been largely in error. He paid two political visits to the place during the Reform agitation of 1S31, made speeches, and was somewhat unceremoniously treated by the rabble. Of that there is no question. But Lockhart's highly -coloured account of the second occasion, at least, hardly tallies with the state- 94 Scott Country ment of those who were eye-witnesses ; nor is it consistent with the pro- babilities of the case. The Hkehhood is that both Scott and his bio- grapher pictured the scene from the side of hot pohtical prejudice. They were Tories of an uncompromising type, whilst the majority of the men of Jedburgh and Hawick were doggedly democratic. All the same, that Scott, then shattered in health, should have put him- self in harm's way was manifestly a mistake on his part, and any abusive word or deed from the people of a town and district he so well loved is one of those regrettable inci- dents impossible now to recall, but for which Time has brought the softeninir PEXIELHEUGH. ** Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed '^ 95 and healing touches, and the atonement that a modern age has been able to make. Jedburgh forms a convenient centre from which to visit many spots of more than local interest. Crailing, in the immediate neighbourhood, was the scene of the ministry of David Calderwood, the Kirk historian. At Nisbet, in the same parish, the saintly Samuel Ruther- ford was born about the year 1600. Penielheugh is an ever-present memory, whose stalklike structure, 156 feet in height, reared on an elevation of nearly 800 feet, commemorates the victories of Wellington and the British Army. On the southern base of the hill hes Mounteviot, where died in 1805 Jean Elliot, writer of the well-known version of the " Flowers of the Forest " beginning : " I've heard a lilting at the ewe-milking, Lasses a-lilting before dawn of day." Right over against Penielheugh, to the south-west, embowered in woods, is Ancrum, a village of con- siderable antiquity, long held by the See of Glasgow. Its Cross, as old as the time of David I., is one of the best-preserved of the ancient crosses on the Border. Ancrum was the birthplace of Dr. William Buchan, of ** Domestic Medicine " celebrity ; and it has been stated, though there does not seem to be definite proof for it, that " Douglas " Home was born here. James Thomson spent some time at the manse of Ancrum,, 96 Scott Country and a cave in the picturesque glen of the Ale Water bears his name. ** Worthy famous Mr. John Living- stone," as he was called by his contemporaries, a notable Covenanting divine, was minister of this parish from 1648 to 1662. Ancrum naturally suggests Ancrum Moor, a mile or two north-west of the village, one of the last great battle-fields of the international war. In February, 1544, an English army under Sir Ralph Evers and Sir Brian Latoun desolated the Scottish frontier as far north as Melrose, defacing the Douglas tombs in the abbey. On returning with their booty towards Jedburgh, they were overtaken at Ancrum Moor, and severely beaten by a Scottish force led by the Earl of Angus and Scott of Buccleuch. In this battle, ** Eden Scenes on Crystal Jed '' 1)7 accordinij: to tradition, fou^dit Maiden Lilliard, a brave Scotswoman from Maxton, who fell bcnc;ith many MAIDEN LILLIARD S GRAVE. wounds, and was buried on the spot, thenceforward known as Lilliard's Edge.* Her grave, in the midst * Lilliard, however, or a form of the word— Liliattc, I.iliot Lyllyat— seems to have been the name of the /)/DTWOWGh€NWH^^^ NANESALSOWELKNOVV/NGTAlvOTWO^; TK£-0Th£RNOTKN0WN-NX/HOALLDIE PRlSOrvERSINDUNNOTTAR-CASTL E AhN0-/d5S-F0RThEIRADK:RENCE- TOT^-E•WORD•OF•GODA^D SCOTL A^DS . CCVENANTEDWORKOFREFORMA TIGN- REV- HCH^-2 VERSE INSCRIPTION ON COVENANTERS' STONE AT WHICH " OLD MORTALITY WAS WORKING WHEN SCOTT SAW HIM AT DUNNOTTAR. was placed by the publishers of the present volume. The Rev. Nathaniel Paterson, D.D., minister of Gala- shiels at the Disruption, Moderator of the Free Church in 1850, and author of the " Manse Garden," was a grandson of " Old Mortality." An excursion in the Scott Country, singularly memor- able and pleasurable, may be made from Hawick up 9—2 132 Scott Country the green pastoral valley of the Teviot. There, if any- ■ where, romance reigns. The spell of Sir Walter is on every side. The Teviot, as much as the Tweed, has been touched by a master-hand. Every name is redo- lent of the Minstrel and his " Lay." So long as Time sweeps the strings of that tuneful harp, and " Its dulcet measures float In many a liquid winding note Along the banks of Teviot's stream," the Scott shrines are not likely to be deserted. After reading the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," one has a, wish to wander among the chief scenes of the poem, and to dream its wondrous visions over again. With the Knight of Deloraine, let, then, our watchword be, " For Branxholme, ho !" About two miles out from Hawick there is passed on the left, high up among its engirdling trees, the Peel of Goldielands, square, massive, and fairly well preserved, a Scott stronghold — the " watch- tower of Branxholme," as the author of the " Statistical Account " describes it. Here dwelt the " Laird's Wat, that worthie man," who led the Scotts at the Reidswire in 1575. His tombstone, with curiously worded in- scription, may still be seen in the Museimi at Hawick. Soon we reach the junction of the Borthwick and Teviot — "Where Borlha hoarse, that loads the meads with sand, Rolls her red tide to Teviot's western stiand." Hawick among the Hills 133 And up the Borthwick Water a mile or two is Harden, a place of more than ordinary interest to the Scott student. Embosomed in woodland grandeur, it stands on high ground overlooking a rugged, romantic stretch of glen, shut in on three sides by towering, precipitous banks. Here Auld Wat of Harden reigned a king 134 Scott Country among Border reivers, and his deeds of derring-do, with many estimable and manful qualities which dis- close something more than the mere wild spirit of free- booting, have they not been recorded by the balladists, and graven deep on the tablets of memory? The hero of "Jamie Telfer o' the fair Dodhead," and of a hundred anecdotes and memories scattered wide in Border story, the redoubtable Wat catches, somehow, both our admiration and our sympathy. He it was who w-edded the " Flower of Yarrow," from which union there sprang in the seventh degree the most illustrious scion of Border blood. There is little wonder that Scott felt the fascination of the " ancestral shrines " in his frequent visits to Harden and other of the clan-strengths, and rejoiced to rear his own home within easy compass of them. We remember here the tradition, besung by Leyden, of the captive infant brought home in a raid, fostered by the Flower of Yarrow, and reputed to have been the source of many of the sweetest melodies in Border min- strelsy : " Of milder mood the gentle captive grew, Nor loved the scenes that scared his infant view ; In vales remote, from camps and castles far. He shunned the fearful, shuddering joy of war ; Content the loves of simple swains to sing, Or wake to fame the harp's heroic string ; He lived o'er Yarrow's fairest Flower to shed the tear. And strew the holly leaves o'er Harden's bier ; Hawick among the Hills 135 But none was found aliovc the minstrel's tomb, Emblem of peace, to bid the daisy bloom ; He, nameless as the race from whence he sprung, Saved other names, and left his own unsung." Passing upwards to Branxholme — poetically Braiik- some — the \'alley begins to narrow. What charm in BRANXHOLME. the beauty and abundance and variety of the trees that flank the highway ! But the storied pile is in front of us — a whitewashed mansion-house, still inhabited, large, strong, old, but not ancient in appearance. It was the master-fort of the district, the keep of Upper Teviotdale, the key of the pass between the Tweed basin and " merrie Carlisle." Originally united to the 13G Scott Country barony of Hawick, and possessed by the Lovels, it passed through many owners, and came finally to the Buccleuch family, who have held it since 1420. Up to 1756 it was their principal seat. Branxholme was continually exposed to attacks during the English invasions. In 1514, 1533, 1545, and again in 1570, the tower was burned and sacked. Sir Walter Scott commenced to rebuild it in 1571, and it was com- pleted by his widow in 1576. Over the arched doorway is the inscription : " In . VARLD . IS . NOCHT . NATURE . HES . VROUCHT . VAT . SAL . LEST . AY. " THAIRFORE . SERVE . GOD . KEIP . VEIL . YE . ROD . THY . FAME . SAL . NOCHT . DEKAY. ScHiR Walter Scot of Margret Douglas, Branxholme, i57I;' Knycht. Other inscriptions and coats of arms are found on its walls, and the whole place has undergone many changes with the changing years. Branxholme's main glory, however, is not in its past history, or the pomp and circumstance surrounding it in the heyday of its power. If there was ** another Yarrow " to Words- worth, there is " another Branxholme " to us. " It is not the memory of the fighting barons of Buccleuch, with their tumultuous raids and unending quarrels, which draws the pilgrim's feet to Branxholme's Tower, but the memory of events which the imagination of the Hawick among the Hills \o7 Minstrel has conjured up, and which havc^ made for themselves a local habitation and a name.'" " Nine-andtwenly knii;hts of fame Hung their shields in Branksome Hall, Nine-and-twenty squires of name Brought them their steeds to bower from stall." The western tower — " Nebsie " — is supposed to be the oldest part of the buildin<:,^ and in it was " The bower that was guarded by word and by spell. Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell." Behind is the "good green wood" where the elvish Dwarf held Lord Cranstoun's steed the while his master sat with the fair Margaret under the " hawthorn green." " And down in the meadow beneath the castle, have we not the battleground of dark Musgrave and the champion of Buccleuch ? and may we not in imagina- tion again see the lists set up — the gorgeously-attired heralds proclaiming the issue — the two steel-clad champions riding forth against each other, with visor closed and lance in rest — the shout of assault, the deadly shock, the prostrate warrior — the sudden ap- pearance of Deloraine, ghastly from illness and pallid with rage — the discovery in the victorious champion of Buccleuch of one long accounted as an enemy of that house ? But now, when he is led before the Lady of Branxholme, as the lover of her daughter, the saviour 138 Scott Country of her son, she breaks her ' silence stern and still.' " Not you, but Fate, has vanqiiished me ; Their kindly influence stars may shower On Teviot's side and Branksome's Tower, For pride is quelled, and love is free." Branxholme is remembered, too, through Ramsay's song of the " Bonnie Lass o' Branxholme." " As 1 cam in by Teviot side, And by the braes o' Branxholme, There first I saw my bonnie bride, Young, smiling, sweet, and handsome." Near Allanhaugh Peel, a mile or so from Branx- holme, at the junction of the Allan and Teviot, occurred the celebrated duel between Henderson of Priesthaugh — the " Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" of the ballad— and the " Bard of Reull," or " Sweet Milk," as he was nicknamed, in which the latter was slain. " On Teviol's side, in fight they stood, And tuneful hands were stain'd with blood ; Where still the thorn's white branches wave, Memorial o'er his rival's grave." * Teviothead is the next notable spot in the valle}-. At first sight not unlike the tapering spire of a church, the monument to rfenry Scott Riddell, author of " Scotland Yet," is seen on the Dryden Knowes, to the * See reference in the " Lay," Canto iv., 34, 35 ; and Allan Cunningham's "Songs of Scotland," ii. ;i37. Hawick among the Hills 139 rii2;ht. Near by is the cottage where he resided till his death in 1870, and the " Wild Glen sae Green " of his fine lyric. His grave is in the adjoining churchyard beside that of his third son, W. B. C. Riddell, a youth of remarkable promise. Riddell was born at Ewes JOHNIE ARMSTRONG S MEMORIAL AND HENRY SCOTT RIDDELL S GRAVE. in 1798, and from a shepherd rose to be minister of the preaching-station at Carlanrigg, now the parish of Teviothead. He published several volumes both in prose and verse, and will be long remembered as the writer of the most patriotic ode in the Scottish 140 Scott Country language. The Johnie Armstrong Memorial is close at hand, and tells its own tale : TRADITION RECORDS THAT NEAR THIS SPOT WERE BURIED JOHN ARMSTRONG OF GILNOCKIE AND A NUMBER OF HIS PERSONAL FOLLOWERS, WHO WERE TREACHEROUSLY TAKEN & EXECUTED AT CARLANRIGG BY ORDER OF KING JAMES THE V. DURING HIS EXPEDITION TO PACIFY THE BORDERS IN JULY 1530. John murdred was at Carlinrigg And all his galant companie ; But Scotland's heart was ne'er sae wae, To see sae mony brave men die. Old Ballad. This Stone ended September 1897. The Carlanrigg tragedy is surely one of the foulest blots in Scottish story. The ballad in the "Minstrelsy" commemorating the fate of Armstrong and his men is one of the best examples of the historical class, and has some wonderfully picturesque and lifelike touches. It was long a tradition that the trees on which they were hanged were immediately blasted, and withered away. Hence Leyden's lines : " Where rising Teviot joins the Frostylee Stands the huge trunk of many a leafless tree. No verdant woodbine wreaths their age adorn ; Bare are the boughs, the gnarled roots uptorn. Hawick among the Hills 141 Here shone no sunbeam, fell no summer dew, Nor ever grass beneath the branches grew, Since that bold chief who Henry's power defied, True to his country, as a traitor died." The sources of the Teviot and the modern inn of Mosspaul, recently revived to somewhat of its ancient popularity, are a few miles further on — " 'Mong wilds of tawny heath, and mosses dun, Through winding glens, scarce pervious to the sun." Of a river so besung, so history-haunted, so laden with recollections of the Romancist, we can take no better farewell than in his own immortal lines : " Sweet Teviot ! on thy silver tide The glaring bale-fires blaze no more ; No longer steel-clad warriors ride Along thy wild and willowed shore ; Where'er thou wind'st, by dale and hill, All, all is peaceful, all is still, As if thy waves, since Time was born, Since first they rolled upon the Tweed, Had only heard the shepherd's reed, Nor startled at the bugle-horn." CHAPTER VIII LIDDESDALE Of the Border counties, Roxburgh has, perhaps, the greatest number of associations with Scott, His earl}' hfe was spent in the shire, and for the last twenty years Abbotsford was his home. The chief names in the Scott biography centre in the north and middle of the county, by the Tweed and its tributaries. There is, however, one district of Roxburghshire which does not belong to Tweedside, yet is as essentially as any a part of the Scott Country. There Scott found the material for his first success in literature, and no place was more familiar in his early manhood. This was the Valley of the Liddcl, separated from the rest of the shire by a broad belt of green, undulating hills, an offshoot of the Cheviots. The Liddel has its source within a few miles of Jed-head across the watershed, and, careering southward for seven-and-twenty miles, joins the Esk at the Moat of Liddel below Canonbie, and near the famous Netherby Hall. Liddesdale had a peculiar attraction for Scott. It Liddesdale 143 was practically an unknown land, "like some unkenned- of isle ayont New Holland." Saturated with history and tradition, the last haunt of the balladists, a peel in every glen, it lay as virgin soil to the delver in old romance. And such was the bent of Scott's mind at this period. He had just been called to the Bar, and was in no immediate hurry or need for practice. With the removal of college constraints, and the prospect before him of a professional career, and the desire to cultivate his literary leanings, and no doubt also in his heart of hearts the ambition, like Burns, " for puir auld Scotland's sake, Some usefu' plan or bulk to make," he felt that he might indulge his antiquarian hobby not without some measure of profit, and certainly with a fair amount of personal pleasure. Liddesdale afforded perhaps the richest field for research in the South of Scotland, and right joyous was Scott when in the autumn of 1792 the opportunity came for a tour through its wilds. During seven seasons in succession, along with hi3 companion Shortreed, the genial Sheriff- Substitute, he "raided," as he called it, the lonely glens of Liddel Water, exploring every rivulet to its source, and every ruined peel from foundation to battlement. As evidence of the isolation and inaccessibleness of the place, the roads were of the most primitive character. No wheeled carriage had ever been seen in Liddesdale. 144 Scott Country- Scott's gig, in 1798, was the first vehicle to be driven over its ill-conditioned hill-paths. There was no inn or public-house in the whole valley, and Lockhart describes how the travellers passed " from the shep- herd's hut to the minister's manse, and again from the cheerful hospitality of the manse to the rough and jolly welcome of the homestead, gathering wherever they went songs and tunes, and occasionally more tangible relics of antiquity." Never had Scott more exhilarating experiences than on these expeditions. He enjoyed himself to the full. The out-of-door exercise, with its endless round of excitement, and the daily discovery of fresh treasures in romance, were the things on which his imagination had long been set. " Eh me !" wrote Shortreed years afterwards, " sic an endless fund o' humour and drollery as he then had wi' him ! Never ten yards but we were either laughing or roaring and singing. Wherever we stopped, how brawly he suited himsel' to everybody ! He aye did as the lave did ; never made himsel' the great man, or took ony airs in the company. I've seen him in a' moods in these jaunts, grave and gay, daft and serious, sober and drunk — this, however, even in our wildest rambles, was but rare — but, drunk or sober, he was aye the gentleman. He looked excessively heavy and stupid when he was fou, but he was never out o' gude- humour." Notwithstanding such occasions, excusable no doubt and natural enough at the time, the " raiders" Liddesdale 145 were never really idle. By the close of the clay Scott had always been able to "bag" some prize. The Liddesdale excursions were undertaken with a definite aim, and yielded a singularly prolific harvest. Their immediate result was the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," a work on which Scott expended more pains than on any other of his productions. Yet is not the true outcome in the Novels themselves? "Guy Mannering," as everybody knows, is full of charming Liddesdale pictures. And in the "Minstrelsy" there are " the elements of a hundred historical romances." " No person," says Lockhart, " who has not gone through its volumes for the express purpose of com- paring their contents with his great original works, can have formed a conception of the endless variety of incidents and images now expanded and emblazoned by his mature art, of which the first hints may be found either in the text of those primitive ballads, or in the notes, which the happy rambles of his youth had gathered together for their illustration." It was his unrivalled wealth of legendary lore which fostered in Scott the spirit of the story-teller. His undisputed authority in the realm of Border romance was the instrument of his creation as the Sovereign Master of Scottish Fiction. As a novelist he found his task so much easier and lightsomer from his earlier training in Liddesdale and among the Selkirk- shire uplands, and through the wide historical and 146 Scott Country antiquarian reading to which he had given much of his leisure. The "raids" were a conspicuous success. It is to be regretted that so Httle is said about them in the " Life." With a sympathetic peasantry, troops of helpers, and the dalesmen's unconventional reverence for the young advocate — "just a chield like them- selves," as they soon discovered — the work went merrily on. " Each glen was sought for tales of old, Of luckless love, of warrior bold, Of sheeted ghost, that had revealed Dark deeds of guilt, from man concealed ; Yea, every tale of ruth or weir Could waken pity, love, or fear, Were decked anew with anxious pain, And sung to native airs again." In all corners he made his "finds" — far up among the glen heads in solitary shielings, where old and wrinkled dames crooned to their grandbairns and great-grandbairns lilts and rhymes of a bygone age ; from plaided herds and buirdly hinds ; from intelli- gent farmers and encyclopaedic dominies ; from village worthies and adventurous pedlars ; from parish priests and impecunious lairds; from almost everybody, indeed, who had been known to sing or recite a stranded verse or line of the past. The ballads thus rescued and pieced together existed only, for the most part, in oral tradition — rugged and crude compositions whose authors remained unknown. They were not wholly Liddesdale 147 the work of one hand, nor did the}^ claim a poetic gracefulfiess. They would not be the Border ballads if they did. It is their state of unfinishedness, their THE VALE OF HERMITAGE. lack of correct rhythm, their standing upon other than metrical feet, their dramatic outbursts, and their deep- set pathos, which has made them what they are, a lo — 2 148 Scott Country species of literature we would not willingly allow to perish. It was reserved for Scott to give them a fixed place in the literary world. His task was a timeous and "fell" achievement that only one of Scott's calibre could have accomplished. " Long will it live," says Motherwell, " a noble and interesting monument of his unwearied research, curious and minute learning, genius, and taste. It is truly a patriot's legacy to posterity." The " Minstrelsy "' was published in 1802, and met a ready acceptance. A new edition of three volumes followed in 1803, with " Sir Tristrem "' as a kind of companion volume in 1804. In the preparation of the " Minstrelsy " Scott surrounded himself with a coterie of able and zealous assistants. Among others who rendered valuable help in the work of research and by original contributions were Heber and Leyden, as mentioned in a former chapter ; Joseph Ritson, the antiquary ; George Ellis, scholar and critic ; Matthew Gregory Lewis, the "Monk"; Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe of Hoddam ; James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd; Laidlaw, the "dear Willie" of Scott's later years; Dr. Jamieson, of " Scottish Dictionary " fame ; Mr. Morritt of Rokeby ; the Rev. John Marriott, then a tutor in the Buccleuch family ; Anna Seward, the " Swan of Lichfield," and others. Leyden's contributions, " Lord Soulis," and the " Gout of Kccldar, ' were entirely of Liddesdale origin. Liddesdale 149 Some of the finest specimens in the collection were gathered in the Liddel glens, where ballads seemed to thrive as nowhere else. The whole district was over- run with tradition in ruined castle and peel, in cross and ghostly graveyard. It was the country of the Elliots, "lions of Liddesdale," and the "sturdy Arm- strongs "—of the Nixons and the Croziers—" thieves ail." •' P^ierce as the wolf, they rushed to seize their prey ; The day was all their night, the night their day." The banks of the Liddel and its tributary burns are studded with the remains of their old peel-houses, and where these have disappeared the sites are still cherished. On the Liddel are Lariston, the strong- hold of the chief of the Elliots ; and Mangerton, the headquarters of the Armstrongs. Syde recalls the celebrated Jock o' the Syde, another of the clan : " He is weil kend, Johne o' the Syde ; A greater thief did never ryde." Park, where dwelt the redoubtable "little Jock Elliot," hero of a hundred frays ; Copshaw, another Elliot strength ; and Westburnflat, have long since crumbled to the ground. On the pretty Water of Hermitage, birk and alder lined, the towers of Hartsgarth, Red- heugh and Roan, are no more. Hermitage alone has something of its old-world gloom, hidden in the very heart of the hills, cursed by black and bloody memories. 150 Scott Country This great fortress of Liddesdalc is a shrine for many pilgrim feet in these days of Road Boards and travelHng facihties. To gaze on the " brown ruins, scarr'd with age, That frown o'er haunted Hermitage," to peer into the depths of Dalhousie's death-dungeon, and roam through the romantic scenery of the " dusky HERMITAGE. vale of Hermitage in Liddesdale," was one of Scott's earliest wishes. With its eerie history he had long been familiar. Legends thick-sown cluster around it. Popular superstition relegated it to the keeping of Redcap, an imp of the Evil One, and the massive pile is said to be yearly sinking into the ground by the very weight of its ini(]uity. l'\)unded probably Liddesdale 151 by Nicholas de Soulis in 1244, and held by the Soulises for a century, it passed to the Douglases, and " Bell'the-Cat " himself; then to the Hepburns of Bothwell, and finally to the Buccleuch family. Tradition figures the last Lord Soulis as a monster of oppression and cruelty — a human ogre, and done to death by his own menials in a huge boiling cauldron on the Nine-Stane Rig — a Druidic circle a mile or two to the east of the castle. Leyden's "Minstrelsy" ballad on the subject is one of the best from his pen : " On a circle of stones they placed the pot, On a circle of stones but barely nine ; They heated it red and fiery hot, Till the burnish'd brass did glimmer and shine. " They rolled him up in a sheet of lead, A sheet of lead for a funeral pall ; They plunged him in the cauldron red. And melted him, lead, and bones and all. " At the Skelf-hill, the cauldron still The men of Liddesdale can show ;* And on the spot where they boil'd the pot, The spreat and the deer-hair ne'er shall grow. The Nine-Stane Rig is the scene also of the frag- mentary ballad of " Barthram's Dirge ": " They shot him dead at the Nine-Stane Rig, Beside the headless cross, And they left him lying in his blood Upon the moor and moss. * This huge vessel, of copper, is said to be now preserved at Dalkeith Palace. See Border Magazine, January, 1900. 152 Scott Country " They dug his grave but a bare foot deep, By the edge of the Nine-Stane Burn, And they covered him o'er with the heather flower, The moss, and the hidy fern." A bowshot or so from the castle may be seen the Cout's Pool, and just outside the old Hermitage burial- ground the long, ridgy mound said to be his grave. The Cout or Chief of Keeldar, in Northumberland, on the Liddesdale border, was the ogre's sworn enemy, but, being proof against steel, could not be slain in fair fight. Pursued by Soulis and his men, he stumbled, and, falling into a deep pool of the Hermitage Water, was held down by their spears till he was drowned. Here, too, at Hermitage, Bothwell lay wounded, and was visited by Queen Mary. Languishing not many years afterwards in the Danish prison of Dragsholm, where he died in 1578, Professor Aytoun pictures the erstwhile Lord of all the Marches in a retrospective mood — his murderous and foul career almost at a close : " P'or I was reared among the hills Within a Border home, Where, sweeping from their narrow glens, The mountain torrents come ; And well 1 know the bonnie brae Where first the primrose blows, And shrinking tufts of violets Rise from the melting snows ; Ere yet the hazel leaf is out, Or birches grow their gieen ; Or on the sad and sullen ash A kindling bud is seen. Liddesdale 153 Oh ! Hermitage by Liddel side, My old ancestral tower, Were I again but Lord of thee. Nor owning half the power That in my days of reckless pride I held, but cast away, I would not leave thee. Border keep. Until my dying day. Who owns thee now, fair Hermitage ? Who sits within thy hall ? What banner flutters in the breeze Above the stately wall ? Does yet the courtyard ring with tramp Of horses and of men ? Do bay of hounds and bugle-notes Sound merry from the glen ? Or art thou, as thy master is, A rent and ruined pile ? Once noble, but deserted now By all that is not vile." But the "raids" produced something more than the "Minstrelsy." In writing " Guy Mannering " in 1815, Scott did not forget his experiences among the honest denizens of Hermitage and Liddelside. And in other of the novels these recollections come to the front. Here he found his " Charlieshope " in the farm of Millburnholm, now called Millburn, hard by the castle, and the great original of " Dandie Dinmont " in Willie Elliot, its kindly and hospitable tenant. Scott says the portrait is a composite one, but the likelihood is that Elliot was its chief prototype — "the best rustic picture that has ever been exhibited to the public — the 154 Scott Country most honourable to rustics, and the most creditable to the heart as well as the genius of the artist ; the truest to Nature, the most interesting and the most complete in all its lineaments," James Davidson of Hindlee, in Southdean parish, another supposed prototype, with his breed of " Peppers " and " Mustards," was not known to Scott till some years after the novel v/as ERMITAGE AND LIDDEL. written, and when read in the hearing of Davidson, the worthy man fell asleep. It is possible that Scott had also in his mind Blackhouse on Yarrow and the Laid- laws. But the distinct locale of the story would seem to declare for the Liddesdale store-farmer. The dis- trict has seen many changes since Scott's day, and is no longer the impenetrable "savage land" it was then Liddesdale 155 believed to be. The Waverley Route of the North British Railway passes down the valley within a few miles of its most noted landmarks. The whole glen has been converted from a bleak succession of moors and quaking moss-haggs into a picturesque combina- tion of moor and woodland, rich pastoral holms, and cultivated fields. Near the junction of the Liddel and Hermitage stood the original Castle of the Lords of Liddesdale, around which the ancient village of Castleton, which gives name to the parish, sprang up. A part of the old market cross and the parish churchyard are the sole relics of the place, and of the once-important strong- hold it is impossible to trace more than the mere site. Two miles further down the river is the village of Newcastleton — formerly Copshawholm — founded in 1793 by Henry, third Duke of Buccleuch, a thriving centre and favourite tourist resort. The chief scenes of Lord Ernest Hamilton's romance " The Outlaws of the Marches " are laid in Liddesdale ; William Scott, compiler of '* Border Exploits " and other works, is buried in Castleton Churchyard ; James Telfer, the balladist, and author of " Barbara Gray," one of the best Border stories, now all but forgotten, taught for many years the school at Saughtree on the Liddel Water, dying in 1862 ; and Dr. John Armstrong, the poet, author of the "Art of Preserving Health," was a native of the parish of which his father and brother 156 Scott Country were ministers. In thus apostrophizing his native Liddel, shall we not echo his sentiments ? " Such the stream On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air, Liddel ; till now except in Doric lays Tuned to her murmurs by her love-sick swains, Unknown in song, though not a purer stream Through meads more flowery, more romantic groves, Rolls to the western main. Hail, sacred flood '. May still thy hospitable swains be blest In rural innocence ; thy mountains still Teem with the fleecy race ; thy tuneful woods For ever flourish, and thy vales look gay With painted meadows and the golden grain !" CHAPTER IX scott's first border home " Sheriff of Ettrick Forest," said Scott, was the proudest of his titles. The historic Forest comprised all the land lying between the Ettrick and Yarrow valleys and the banks of Tweed. Covered in remoter times with a dense profusion of oak, birch, and hazel, and up to the reign of James V. a hunting-ground of the Stuarts, it was stocked with a breed of famous red deer, said to be the largest and finest in the kingdom. James, to increase his revenues, turned thousands of sheep into the royal domain to graze This act led to the entire destruction of the trees, and the conversion of the Forest into pasture. " It is now something like a deer forest ; it contains everything but trees, and verifies the witticism that a forest is a place where no trees grow." Scott's appointment dated from December, 1799, and came through the Duke of Buccleuch. He had ;^300 a year as Sheriff, and from legacies left him by his father and uncle, along with his wife's portion from her brother, his 158 Scott Country income, irrespective of forensic gains, was about ^1,000. He continued to live at Lasswade, travel- ling to the scene of his duties at Selkirk, the capital of the shire. On such occasions his headquarters were usually the little inn at Clovenfords, close to the Tweed, and within six miles of Selkirk. The place was, and still is, the centre of a wide fishing district. For Scott it had a distincter claim as within easy CLOVENFORDS. reach of the Yarrow and Ettrick glens, where he longed to pursue his favourite ballad-hunting expedi- tions. The Lord - Lieutenant of the County (Lord Napier), however, objecting to his living at such a distance as Lasswade, he was compelled to look out for a more convenient residence. Accordingly we find him in 1804 (having first thought of Harden, Ashestiel 159 the ancestral home of the Scotts) leasing the modest mansion - house and farm of Ashestiel, on the south bank of the Tweed, the property of his cousin, General Russell, then absent with his regiment in India. The place would be familiar enough to Scott. In 1794 he seems to have spent a pleasant holiday there with the Russells, and it was only a mile or so from Cloven- fords. By July he had become settled in his new abode, and for the next eight years Ashestiel was the centre of some of the happiest associations of his life. For one of Scott's temperament and hobbies there could not have been a more ideal dwelling. Ouiet and retired, and situated on a singularly enchanting reach of the Tweed, the scenery all round about has been well imaged in his own deathless lines. " You approached it," says Lockhart, " through an old-fashioned garden, with holly - hedges, and broad, green terrace - walks. On one side, close under the windows, is a deep ravine, clothed with venerable trees, down which a mountain rivulet is heard, more than seen, in its progress to the Tweed. The river itself is separated from the high bank on which the house stands only by a narrow meadow of the richest verdure. Opposite and all around are the green hills. The valley there is narrow, and the aspect in every direction is that of perfect pastoral repose. The heights immediately be- hind are those which divide the Tweed from the Yarrow, and the latter celebrated stream lies within 160 Scott Country an easy ride, in the course of which the traveller passes through a variety of the finest mountain scenery in the South of Scotland." Ashestiel sprang from an old peel of the same name, parts of which may still be traced in the present building. For several generations it was held by the Kers, then by the Earl of Traquair, and ASHESTIEL. a Covenanting Murray of Philiphaugh. In 1712 it passed to the Russells, whose descendant is still in possession. The place has altered considerably — "sorrowfully changed," as Ruskin said in 1883, since Scott's occupancy. The east wing has been added, and the entrance, which formerly faced the Tweed, is Ashestiel 161 now turned hilhvards. Scott wrote in the old dining- room — the modern hbrary, a quaint, old-fashioned room on the east side of the entrance-porch. Through one of the original windows, now converted into a press beside the fireplace, the greyhounds Douglas and Percy bounded out and in at will. Scott kept his books upstairs in his dressing-room. Not any part of the present furniture is associated with him except a large easy-chair, gifted by Scott to his invalid cousin, Jane Russell, and afterwards- used by himself during the last sad days at Abbotsford. A portrait and a punch-bowl, presents to his cousin, are the sole remain- ing relics. Here, then, Scott spent what have been considered his happiest years. Revisiting Ashestiel in 1826, he wrote in his diary: "Here I passed some happy years. Did I ever pass unhappy years anywhere?" But the eight years of his first Border home were conspicuous for their free, genuine light -hearted- ness and uninterrupted healthiness; for the amount of pleasurable work which they yielded, and first flushes of literary success; for the dear friendships formed, and the enduring love-links fastened about so many humble lives in the homes around. No cloud capped his sky. All was fair and sunshiny weather in the sweet, glad heyday of his pure and noble manhood. Scott's Ashestiel life was largely hved out-of-doors. No man tested Nature's possi- II 162 Scott Country bilities more than he, " combining strenuous intel- lectual toil with physical exertions which of themselves would have sufficed to tax to the uttermost men of less energetic temper and robust frame. He rode much, and, as always, with a fearlessness which often alarmed his companions. ' The de'il's in ye, Shirra,' one of these would sometimes say to him ; ' ye'll never halt till they bring ye hame wi' your feet foremost.' To field-sports, for which the neighbourhood afforded ample opportunity, he gave himself, too, with his accustomed ardour; by day there was coursing with the greyhounds, or random riding over the hills ; and at night, salmon -spearing by torchlight — an amuse- ment which seemed to derive much of its zest from the prospect of duckings and broken shins. All these activities, together with the concerns of his own farm and the care of his cousin's woods, gave him plenty to do; yet he found time, summer after summer, to renew the ' raids ' of earlier days. Accompanied by his friend Skene, he little by little explored all the scenes celebrated in Border history and tradition, and Skene did not fail to notice the extraordinary popu- larity of the ' Shirra ' among the farmer-folk of Ettrick and Yarrow. Altogether, life at Ashestiel fulfilled Scott's ideal of combined simplicity and comfort. There was nothing grand about his establishment; but he was hai)py to in\ite his friends to take a srumper with him Ashestiel 168 over the hills in the morning, and return, with appetites whetted by fresh air and exercise, to a clean table-cloth, a leg of forest mutton, and a blazing hearth." Ashestiel was written deep on Scott's heart, and had he been able to purchase the property, as has been said, Abbots- THE SHIRRA S KNOWE ford would never have arisen from the swamps of Clarty Hole. At Ashestiel his fame as a poet rose to its full height, and the locality is therefore more interesting to students of his poetry than any other of the Scott shrines. "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," " Marmion," " The Lady of the Lake," were all written and published during his II — 2 164 Scott Country stay at Ashestiel, and the first chapters of " Waverley " dashed off and laid aside, to be examined some years later, and finally lost sight of until their more momen- tous reappearance in 1813. As might be expected, the Ashestiel poems are not without a strong local colour. The Introductory Epistles to "Marmion," in particular, are crowded with allusions to the scenery and habits of the district and incidents of former times. A knoll, clad with oak and birch, on the adjoining farm of Peel, and overlooking the Peel or Glenkinnon Burn, where Scott is said to have penned large portions of " Marmion," came to be called the " Shirra's Knowe "; and another favourite spot is pointed out underneath a tree on the river's bank not far from the house. There, looking out towards Neidpath Fell and the " sister heights of Yair " with the "ever-dear Tweed," to use Thomas Aird's pathetic phrase, in pleasant babble at his feet, and the glamour of old romance around him. the great Minstrel sang his immortal lays. As a picture of early Winter on Tweedside, nothing could be truer to fact, or more graceful and tender in its setting, than the first lines of " Marmion," the grandest of Scott's verse romances. The opening refer- ence is to the ravine on the east of the house, down which thunders the Peel IJurn in frequent winter spates : " November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sere ; Ashestiel 165 Late, gazing down the steepy linn, That hems our little garden in, Low in its dark and narrow glen You scarce the rivulet might ken, So thick the tangled greenwood grew, So feeble trilled the streamlet through ; Now, murmuring hoarse, and frequent seen Through bush and briar, no longer green, An angry brook, it sweeps the glade, Brawls over rock and wild cascade. And foaming brown, with doubled speed. Hurries its waters to the Tweed. No longer Autumn's glowing red Upon our Forest hills is shed : No more beneath the evening beam Fair Tweed reflects their purple gleam ; Away hath passed the heather bell That bloomed so rich on Neidpath Fell ; Sallow his brow, and russet-bare Are now the sister heights of Yair ; The sheep, before the pinching heaven. To sheltered dale and down are driven, Where yet some faded herbage pines, And yet a watery sunbeam shines ; In meek despondency they eye The withered sward and wintry sky, And, far beneath their summer hill, Stray sadly by Glenkinnon's rill ; The shepherd shifts his mantle's fold, And wraps him closer from the cold ; His dogs no merry circles wheel, But, shivering, follow at his heel ; A cowering glance they often cast. As deeper moans the gathering blast." "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" was inspired by scenes in the immediate neighbourhood. It was begun 166 Scott Country at the request of the Countess of Dalkeith during one of Scott's frequent visits to the Buccleuch family seat of "sweet Bowhill,"' across the hills from Ashestiel above the junction of Yarrow and Ettrick. " The T^ady of the Lake " — his biggest financial success — appeared in iSio, sending thousands to \iew the magnificent Trossachs and Highland scenery. A large amount of other work, chiefly magazine and editorial, was done by Scott at Ashestiel, and some popular lyrical pieces are the product of this period. It is to be regretted that Ashestiel does not seem to receive the recognition which it ought to have as a prominent Scott landmark. There is reason to fear that Ruskin's taunt may be, after all, only too well founded, that the birthplace of " Marmion " is in danger of being for- gotten as a sweet shrine of the greatest figure in Scottish literary history. But one cannot pass from the place without recall- ing Scott's humbler friendships. Here Tom Purdie entered his service as shepherd, a post which had been offered to James Hogg, but declined. Purdie was, perhaps, the greatest "character" either at Ashe- stiel or Abbotsford. He came first under Scott's notice in his capacity of Sheriff, on a charge of poaching, when the poor fellow gave such an account of himself and his circumstances, with a kind of sly pathetic humour, that Scott's heart went out towards him, and instead of punishing he took him into his employ- Ashestiel 167 ment. From shepherd he rose to be forester and general factotum. Tom proved a faithful servant, not- withstanding his somewhat thirsty habits, which drew from Scott the threatened epitaph : " Here lies one who might have been trusted with untold gold, but not with TOM I'UKDIE. ■ a painting at Ahbotsfonl. unmeasured whisky." When he died, in 1829, however, an epitaph of a very different nature, as will be seen, was cut upon his tombstone in Melrose Churchyard. Peter Mathieson, Purdie's brother-in-law, became coachman to Scott during the Ashestiel life, and 168 Scott Country survived him some years. Scott's relationship with his dependents was of a pecuharly happy type, and TOM I'URDIE S GRAVE. emphatically an exception to the cynic's rule. " He was a hero to those who knew him most intimately Ashestiel 1 ^'^ in the common and disillusionizing routine of domes- tic life." Scott's homes were seldom without a pretty stiff list of visitors. At Lasswade he had troops of acquaint- ances coming to see hini from the city. Ashestiel was no better, and Abbotsford was likened to a hotel. Literary aspirants, publishers, booksellers, antiquaries, all found their way to Ashestiel. But the most agree- able of his visitants were his own personal friends. Skene spent there some pleasant holidays, and he was honoured with a visit from Southey, and other monarchs of the realms of rhyme. Across the hills from Foulshiels rode Mungo Park, the famous traveller, and his brother Archie, who were fast friends of the " Shirra."' Many a long talk had Park and Scott on the subject of African exploration. They parted for ever on Williamhope Ridge, at the head of the Peel Glen, a wild, solitary spot on the Tweed and Yarrow watershed. A small ditch divided the moor from the road, and in going over it Park's horse stumbled, and nearly fell. " I am afraid, Mungo," said Scott, " that is a bad omen." To which Park answered, smiling, " Freits follow those who look to them." With this expression, he struck the spurs into his horse, and Scott never saw him again. Quite a number of notable places lie around Ashestiel. Clovenfords recalls Wordsworth's, as well as Scott's, associations with the little inn. Here lodged the Lake 170 Scott Country- poet in 1803, when half persuaded to turn aside to Yarrow. " And when we came to Clovenford. Then said my winsome marrow, ' Whateer betide we'll turn aside And see the Braes of \'arri)w/ " YAIR BRIDGI Not till 1814, however, did he gaze on the haunted stream. But the Laureate's fine lines on " Yarrow Unvisited" will always link the classic vales together. Further down is Yair and the rocky gorge of the river, of which Scott wrote : Ashestiel 171 " From Yair — which hills so closely bind, Scarce can the Tweed his passage find, Though much he fret, and chafe, and toil, Till all his eddying currents boil." Yair House, the home of the Pringles, once the seat of the Kers, whose quaint epitaph in Melrose Abbey touched the heart of W'ashinjj^ton Irvin<,^ is close by. And almost opposite we can see the ruined manor- hojse of Fairnalee, in the turret of which iMison Rutherford, afterwards Mrs. Cockburn, composed her version of the " Flowers of the Forest," beginning, " r\ e seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling." She was born here in 1713, and died at Edinburgh in 1794. Up the Tweed from Ashestiel a short distance, perched on the hillside — Scott's favourite Sunday walk — is the ruined peel of Elibank,* an ancient seat of the Murravs, long famous in Border story. Here tradition has celebrated " the strangest marriage in history," when young Scott of Harden, son of " auld Wat," preferring the matrimonial noose to the gallows-tree, wedded" Muckle-mou"ed Meg," the unwinsome daughter of Sir Gideon Murray. Both Scott and Hogg, it is to be feared, have been guilty of embellishing what ap- pears to be no more than a mere legend. t The marriage * At Elibank farm-house Dr. William Russell, the historian of Ancient and Modern Europe, was born in 1741. t See " Border Antiquities " for Scott's version of the incident ; and Letter to Miss Seward, June 29, 1802, in the "Life,' with the unfinished ballad of the " Reiver's Wedding" ; also Hogg's " Fray of Elibank " in the '" Mountain Bard." 172 Scott Country ^t^S^lj^ m ) ^V-'^.'^,|ir^ ^ ■ '.' \ \ ^-^^ ;\r:f^ J^ <.:.. ■i*-^^^. Ashestiel 173 did not take place hurriedly, but was the subject of a carefully-completed contract, to which there were four assentin^:^ parties — the two fathers, and William Scott, younger of Harden, and Agnes Murray, the two to be united. The document still exists amongst the Eli- bank Papers, bearing the date July 14, 161 1. Sir Gideon had three sons and only one daughter. From the union of the latter, through her third son Walter Scott, the founder of the Raeburn branch of the family, sprang Sir Walter Scott. Raeburn's eldest son fell in a duel in a field near Selkirk, still known as Raeburn's Meadow. The second son, Walter, became a zealous Jacobite, and was called " Beardie," from a vow which he made never to shave his beard till the Stuarts were restored. Sir Walter Scott said of him " that it would have been well if his zeal for the vanished dynasty had stopped with his letting his beard grow. But he took arms, and intrigued in their cause, until he lost all he had in the world, and, as I have heard, ran a narrow risk of being hanged, had it not been for the interference of Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch and Mon- mouth." In the Introduction to Canto VI. of " Marmion," Sir Walter describes his " great-grand- sire ' With amber beard and flaxen liair, And reverend apostolic air, Small thought was his, in after time E'er to be hitch'd into a rhyme. 174 Scott Country Ashestiel 175 The simple sire could only boast That he was loyal to his cost ; The banish'd race of kings revered, And lost his land— but kept his beard." He died at Kelso in 1729. Robert Scott, " Beardie's " second son, was Sir Walter Scott's grandfather, the Sandyknowe farmer. CHAPTER X TRAQUAIR AND ST. ROXAN'S Shortly after Scott settled at Ashestiel he began the writing of the first of what was destined to be the most marvellous series of prose romances in the English language. He had thrown together, he tells us, about one-third of the first volume of " Waverley," and had got John Ballantyne to advertise it as a forth- coming publication, when he cast the manuscript aside, chiefly on the advice of his friend William Erskine (afterwards Lord Kinnedder), who had sharpened his critical knife rather keenly over it. For five years the manuscript lay untouched. It seems to have been shown to James Ballantyne about iSio, but was lost sight of again for other three years ; indeed, Scott had no recollection of its whereabouts. It was not until the summer of 1813 that by a mere accident the missing sheets were discovered, the author's thoughts at the time being centred on a supply of fishing-tackle for a friend. No sooner, however, did his eye light upon them in the old " odds-and-ends " bureau in the Traquair and St. Ronan^s 177 lumber-room at Abbotsford than he set himself with rekindled enthusiasm to complete the story. This he did within an incredibly short space of time, dashing: off the last two volumes during the evenings of three summer weeks. " Waverley " was published anony- mously on July 7, 1814, with what result is well 12 178. Scott Country known. It became the universal topic. Five editions were sold off within as many months, and on his return from a cruise with the Lighthouse Commissioners Scott found himself the unacknowledged lion of the hour. 1814 was an epoch-making year in British literature, when the " Great Unknown" commenced to charm the reading public with his unrivalled creations, in the wholesomest fiction which had been before it for many a day. The popularity of " Waverley " and its successors has never waned, but vastly increased with the years. Edition after edition has been poured forth from the press, and the literature that has grown up around Scott and his writings comprises perhaps the largest contribution to the life and work of any man. Living at Ashestiel when the first portion of " Waverley " was penned, we may naturally expect it to be somewhat coloured by the scener\' of the district. Hence Tuily-Veolan, the seat of Cosmo Comyne Brad- wardine of Bradwardine, is understood to have for its prototype the ancient, weather-beaten, history-haunted House, or Palace, as it has been styled, of Traquair, six or seven miles further up the Tweed. Although, as Scott himself hints, there may be no particular mansion so described — and half a dozen places assume the honour — Traquair is believed to be the nearest approach to an original. In Chapters \TII. and IX. of "Waverley" the author sketches a " Scottish manor-house sixty Traquair and St. Ronan's 170 years since," and there slunild be no difficulty in dis- cerning in it a definite enough pen-portrait of that palHd, forlorn pile, " stricken all o'er with eld." After picturing the village of Tally- Veolan, peat-stacked and dung-hilled, its street rugged and fiint\' and the houses rRAyuAiR. set down with no respect to order, he goes on to de- scribe the baronial residence itself: " About a bowshot trom the end of the village appeared the enclosures, proudly denominated the Parks of Tully-Veolan, being certain square fields, surrounded and divided by stone walls five feet in height. In the centre of the exterior barrier was the upper gate of the avenue, opening under an archway, battlemented on the top, and adorned with two large weather-beaten, mutilated masses of upright stone, which, if the tradition of the hamlet could 12 — 2 180 Scott Country be trusted, had once represented two rampant Bears, the supporters of the family of Bradwardine. This avenue was straight and of moderate length, running between a double row of very ancient horse-chestnuts, planted alternately with sycamores, which rose to such huge height, and flourished so luxuriantly, that their boughs completely overarched the broad road beneath. Beyond these venerable ranks, and running parallel to them, were two high walls, of apparently the like antiquity, overgrown with ivy, honey- suckle, and other climbing plants. The avenue seemed very little trodden, and chiefly by foot-passengers ; so that, being very broad and enjoying a constant shade, it was clothed with grass of a deep and rich verdure, excepting where a footpath, worn by occasional passengers, tracked with a natural sweep the way from the upper to the lower gate. This nether portal, like the former, opened in front of a wall, ornamented with some rude sculpture, with battle- ments on the top, o\ er which were seen, half hidden by the trees of the avenue, the high, steep roofs and narrow gables of the mansion, with lines indented into steps, and corners decorated with small turrets. . . . The house seemed to consist of two or three high, narrow, and steep-roofed buildings, projecting from each other at right angles. It had been built at a period when castles were no longer necessary, and when the Scottish architects had not yet acquired the art of designing a domestic residence. The windows were numberless, but very small ; the roof had some nondescript kind of projections, called bartizans, and displayed at each frequent angle a small turret, rather resembling a pepper-box than a Gothic watch-tower." There are, of course, certain features in Tully-Veolan not found in Traquair at all ; still, as Robert Chambers points out, the likeness is " sufficiently strong to support the idea that this scene formed the original study of the more finished and bold-featured picture of the novelist." Scott would be a frecjucnt visitor at Traquair. Every aspect of the place had a peculiar fascination for him, Traquair and St. Ronan's 181 and it would have been strange had he not introduced it into one or other of his writings. It was the kind of house in which he dchghted, and the whole glen of the Quair, indeed, was full of memories dear to his heart. Traquair is said to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland. Originally a peel-tower overhanging the Tweed, whose waters lashed its southmost wall, it gradually grew to larger proportions, and a place of some importance in early Scottish history. To-day it stands solitary in its old-worldness, no abode in Scot- land more quaint and curious, turreted, walled, but- tressed, windowed, and loopholed, all as in the olden time. Such a building would at once claim the fancy of a romancist, in weaving around it the most charming or weirdest tales. Within are preserved many relics of the past. Here is the bed on which Queen Mary slept during her visit in 1566, and the oaken cradle of the infant James VI. A number of fine paintings adorn the walls. The library is rich in tomes of ancient date. Several manuscripts of the Bible and prayer-books belong to the twelfth, thir- teenth and fourteenth centuries, in beautiful penman- ship, on fine vellum, and highly illuminated. The estate of Traquair was held by no fewer than sixteen proprietors* before it passed to the Stuart family, * Amongst these were Lord James Douglas, Bruces devoted adherent; a branch of the Murrays ; the powerful family of the Boyds ; Dr. WiUiam Rogers, the musician, James III.'s ill-starred 182 Scott Country whose descendant, somewhat remote, is still in posses- sion. Probabh- the most notable of the Earls of Traquair was the first of the title. His remarkable career presents a striking example of the mutability of earthly greatness. From being Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, the highest office in the Government, and Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly, which dignity he held in 1639, his unscrupulous character at last found him out, until, drifting lower and lower in the social scale, he was reduced to the greatest straits, and compelled to ask an alms in the city street. One who witnessed him in that sad plight — Fraser of Kirkhill — -sets down in his diary that "he was a true emblem of the vanity of the world — a very meteor. I saw him begging in the streets of Edin- burgh. He was in an antique garb, and wore a broad old hat, short cloak, and pannier breeches; and I con- tributed in my quarters in the Canongate towards his relief. We gave him a noble, he standing with his hat off. The Master of Lovat, Culbockie, Glenmorrison, and myself were there, and he received the piece of money from my hand as humbly and thankfully as the poorest suppliant. It is said that at a time he had not wherewithal to pay for cobbling his boots, and died favourite ; the Earl of Buchan, whose son, James Stuart, was the founder of the Traquair family. He fell at Flodden. His great- ;,Mandson was the first Earl above mentioned, who succeeded to the estates in 1C06. Traquair and St. Ronan's 1 S3 in a poor cobbler's house." He died in 1659, " sitting in his chair, without any preceding sickness, and but little lamented." The annotator of Scott of Scotstar- vet's " Staggering State of Scots Statesmen " says that at his burial this unfortunate nobleman " had no mortcloth, but a black apron ; nor towels, but leashes belonging to some gentlemen that were present ; and the grave being two feet shorter than his body, the assistants behoved to stay till the same was enlarged and he buried." It is this Earl who figures in the ballad of "Christie's Will," first published in the " Minstrelsy," and composed for the most part by Scott : "Traquair has ridden up Chapelhope, And sae has he down by the Gray Mare's Tail ; He never stinted the liglit gallop Until he speer'd for Christie's Will." When at the height of his power, he had a lawsuit of great importance, to be decided in the Court of Session, and there was every reason to believe that the judgment would turn upon the casting vote of the President, Sir Alexander Gibson (Lord Durie). Durie was an able and conscientious lawyer, incapable of bribe or intimidation, and it was necessary for the success of the Lord Treasurer's scheme that he should, in one way or other, be disposed of. Traquair accord- ingly enlisted in his service a stalwart Borderer, named William Armstrong, known, for the sake of distinction, 184 Scott Country as "Christie's Will," a lineal descendant of the famous Johnie of Gilnockie, who for some marauding exploits had been imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Jedburgh, and was indebted to Traquair for his liberty, if not for his life. To this daring freebooter the Earl applied for help in his extremity, who, without hesitation, agreed to kidnap the President, and keep him out of the way till the cause was decided. This he managed to accomplish whilst the judge was taking his customary airing on Leith Sands. Blindfolded, and muffled in a large cloak, Durie was borne on horseback be- hind " Christie's Will " across the most unfrequented country roads to the Tower of Graham, near Moffat, in whose dungeon he spent three dreary months, receiving his food through an aperture in the wall, seeing no one, and hardly ever hearing the sound of a human voice. At length the lawsuit was decided in Traquair's favour, and Will was directed to set the President at liberty, which he did exactly after the manner of his capture, setting him down on the same spot by the shore of Leith. " Traquair has written a privie letter, And he has sealed it \vi' his seal— ' Ye may let the auld brock out o' the poke : My land's my ain, and a's gane weel.' " How very different the career of the last Earl— the eighth — whose unbounded generosity and amiable dis- position made him the friend alike of rich and poor ! Traquair and St. Ronan^s 185 Albeit an eccentric individual, his little oddities were overlooked in the light of his large-heartedness and the pure simplicity of his life. He died in 1861, and was followed fourteen years later by his sister, Lady Louisa, in the hundredth year of her age — the last of the old TRAiiUAlR GATEWAY line of Stuarts, who held the barony for close on four centuries. The magnificent avenue— said to be ghost-haunted — - and closed gateway, flanked with huge guardian Bears — " most grotesque supporters " — are conspicuous objects on the highway. The shutting up of the great gate of Traquair is a subject of much speculation in the district. Several reasons arc given. The defeat 186 Scott Country at CuUoden and the failure of the Stuart hopes was a bitter blow to this Border Jacobite family, and the tradition that finds most acceptance in Peeblesshire is that the gate has remained unopened since the '45. It is said that Prince Charlie, during his six weeks' reign in Edinburgh, rode to Traquair in person to persuade the Earl of that day to come "out." He declined, however, but, in escorting his guest to the head of the avenue, vowed that the gate should never be opened till a Stuart and a Catholic was on the throne. Others allege that it has stood closed since the funeral of the seventh Earl's Countess in 1796. When the cortege had passed through, the massive gate swung back mysteriously and closed itself, the Earl declaring his intention of never having it opened until another Countess should be brought home to fill the place of her whose corpse had just been borne out. But that never occurred, and there has not been a Countess of Traquair since, while the Earldom itself is now extinct. Traquair is the centre of a widely historic and classic countryside. Few places are more redolent of song and poetry. After Yarrow, its nearest neighbour, it is an easy second. The very name has music in it — " the strath of the winding burn." This parish is one of Nature's beauty-spots. With abundance of wood and water, fertile fields, and richly-pastured hill-lands ever pleasant to the eye, life here shinild be most truly Arcadian. No reeking factories, no river pollution, no Traquair and St, Ronan's 187 swarming population, none ot the modern disturbing elements to break in on its quiet and pensive charm ! O blessed breezes that blow from Yarrow Vale with the callerest, most bracing ozone imagmable ! Here may the holiday-maker and the health-seeker find ample store of enjoyment and invigoration hardly anywhere equalled : " Oh for a breath o' the moorlands, A whiff o' the caller air ! For the scent o' the flowerin' heather My very heart is sair ! Oh for the sound o" the burnies That wimple owre the lea ! For a sicht o' the browning bracken On the hillsides waving free !" Barely six miles from its sweet manse gate you reach the Yarrow, touching the storied stream at the well-known Gordon Arms. Past the top of the somewhat hilly road, leading out from Traquair by the Paddy Slacks and Glenlude, " through one of the greenest, purest, most pathetic glens in the Borderland," on the ridge of the watershed, and in the descent on the other side, the first glimpse is caught of the Yarrow. It is to this particular spot that Wordsworth refers in his " Effusion on the Death of James Hogg " : " When first, descending from the moorlands, I saw the stream of Yarrow glide Along a bare and open valley, The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide." 188 Scott Country- Wordsworth was here in September, 1814. " We had lodged,"' he writes, "the night before at Traquair, where Hogg had joined us, and also Dr. Anderson, the editor of the ' British Poets,' who was on a visit at the manse." Their lodging was at Traquair Knowe, then tenanted by Willie Laidlaw, whom Wordsworth TRAQUAIR KNOWE. had met at Jedburgh eleven years previously. He seems to have arrived at Traquair unexpectedly, as Laidlaw was from home. Mrs. Laidlaw sent for Hogg, who came across the hills from Yarrow to meet his brother bard, accompanying him back thither. They paid a visit to the manse, but the minister, the Rev. James Nicol, himself a poet, was also from home. Traquair and St. Ronan's 18!) Nicol was a native of Innerleithen, and was presented to Traquair in 1802, where he died in 1819. A true singer, and the author of two volumes of verse, he has, however, not left us much of song. His best composi- tions are an uncommonly fine lyric, "Where Quair rins sweet amang the Flowers," and a humorous ballad, TRAQUAIR KIRK. " Halucket Meg." One of his sons rose to eminence as Professor of Natural Science in Aberdeen University. Willie Laidlaw has a stronger claim to remembrance. Born at Blackhouse in 1780, and thrown early into the company of James Hogg, his father's shepherd, and meeting afterwards with Scott and Leyden on their ballad expeditions, he, too, became fired with the 190 Scott Country Border spirit, assisting not a little in the preparation of the third volume of the " Minstrelsy/' By-and-by he took to farming, but lost heavily at Triquair and elsewhere, and finally settled at Kaeside, on the Abbots- ford estate, as Scott's steward and amanuensis. He From a Sketch by Sir William Allan, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. wrote for the magazines and dabbled in poetry. Scott and he were on the most cordial terms, and it is an open secret that to many of Laidlaw's suggestions Scott was indebted for improvements in the novels. " Lucy's Flittin' " is the lyric which best preser\es Traquair and St. Ronan's I i' 1 Laidlaw's name as a poet. He wrote other pieces, but they have not the charm and pathetic winsome- ness with which he immortahzed the devotion of his broken-hearted heroine. Although a disputed point, it seems certain that the scene was laid at the Glen of Traquair, and not at Blackhouse. There are persons still living who claim to have knowledge of the circum- stances under which the song was written, and in Laidlaw's own MS. the evidence is in favour of the Glen, which he spells with a capital G. In the " Forest Minstrel," where it first appeared, the printing of the word with a small g is manifestly a mistake.* With the crisis of 1825-26, Laidlaw quitted Scott's service for a time, but returned in 1S30. When i8j2 came, with its dark tragedy, he migrated northwards to Ross-shire, where he was successively factor on the estates of Seaforth and Balnagown. His health failing, he went to reside with his brother James, a sheep- ■* Laidlaw's MS. lies before the present writer. The Jamie of the song was James Gray, afterwards Bailie Gray of Edinburgh, whose father, William Gray, held for many years the small farm of the Glen. He died in his loist year. Lucy was a servant with the Grays, and the father declined to allow the son to marry her. According to others, they were afterwards married. It may be noted that the Glen is one of the oldest place-names in Peebles- shire. "Sarah of the Glen" did homage to Edward 1. in 1296. Here Captain Porteous of the 1736 ''Mob" notoriety was born. There is a story that, when a boy, he felled the favourite hen of an old woman at the Glen, who forthwith uttered the tremendously prophetic imprecation, " May there be as many folk at your death as there are feathers on my puir chuckle !" 192 Scott Country- farmer at Contin, near Dingwall, where he died, May i8, 1845. His remains were interred in the churchyard of Contin, a retired spot under the shade of Tor Achilty, one of the loftiest and most picturesque of the Ross-shire mountains, and amidst the most enchanting Highland scenery. The Lord of the Kfe^^' JBj|f ^^j^^ Hfi H^^HHH H 1 iiii^M^]^^^^^! Manor, Sir George S. Mackenzie of Coul, erected a marble tablet to his memory. Outstanding among the poetic shrines of Traquair is, or rather was, its " bonnie Bush," now all but gone. The whole valley of the Quair is dotted o^•er with plantations of birch, rowan, and oak, remnants of the once famous Forest of Ettrick, and of the old classic Wood of Caledon. There should be no difficulty, if Traquair and St. Ronan's 103 rightly directed, in tindiiig the site of the birken clump, so celebrated in song — about 300 yards or so down the valley from Orchardmains, on the left bank of the Quair. Of the original Bush, which in Scottish "THE BUSH ABOON TRAQUAIR." phraseology is applied to a clump of trees as well as to one tree of bushy habit of growth, only two trees remain. Gaunt and gnarled, "wi' gray moss bearded owre," they can hardly be called trees, but dead and decaying stumps, relics of romantic days, the last silent 13 194 Scott Country witnesses to the tr\-st of many a lad and lass who for long years have " Been lying 'neath the grass. The green, green grass o" I'raquair Kirkyaird.' As far back as 1725, Robert Crawford of Auchin- ames, a West Country man, though wondrously wedded to Border life and scenery, sang of "the Bush aboon Traquair" in the quaint if somewhat doleful lyric, " Hear me, ye nymphs and every swain, I'll tell how Peggy grieves me. Though thus I languish and complain, Alas ! she ne'er believes me ; My vows and sighs like silent air. Unheeded, never move her. At the bonnie Bush aboon Traquair 'Twiis there I first did love her.'" Other noteworthy singers have cast the glamour of their muse around Traquair — Nicol, already referred to; Hogg, in his "Over the hills to Traquair"; "Delta" Moir in a beautiful sonnet; Professor Veitch, in many expressive lines; Isa Craig Knox, in her "Brides of Ouair"; and, best of all, Jchn Campbell Shairp, in the verses tirst published in " Kilmahoe ""^by far the finest contribution to modern Border poetr\- : '• Will ye gang wi' me and fare To the Bush aboon Traquair ? Owre the high Minchmuir vVe'U up and awa", This bonnie summer noon, While the sun shines fair aboon. And the licht sklents saftly doun on holm and ha'." Traquair and St. Ronan's 105 Dr. " Rab " Brown says he was fairl\' carried away by this l\ric. "I Hkc it more and more," he writes; " it has an nnspeakable cliarm — the true pastoral melan- choly of the region — and these long, satisfying Hnes, like the stride of a shepherd over the crown of Minchmoor. Why not send it to Thackera}- for the Cornhill ? I will be its godfather. Thank ye again for this exquisite song. I would rather have been the man to write it than Gladstone in all his greatness and goodness." And again, pressingly, he writes: "My dear Poet, do let me send the ' Buss ' to Thackeray. You will laugh at n\\ inveteracy, but it haunts me like a vision." Strange that these two men should be almost better known and remembered by a single composition than for all their other literary efforts — the genial, tender-hearted Doctor for his " Rab," and the buoyant, blithesome Principal for his "Traquair." One is hardly surprised that Shairp should afterwards have confessed, " Now I feel as if I had lived, after all !" It may be interesting to notice that Burns visited the " Bush" in 17S7, and found it to consist of " eight or nine ragged birches," but the Muse does not seem to have inspired him on that occasion, at least. Traquair abounds in legendary lore. A tradition, fully recounted in the notes to the " Queen's Wake," was largely responsible for Hogg's immortal " Kilmeny." No one questions the story of the Satyr Sykes — the spiriting away of the bonnie lass-bairn to Plora Wood, 13—2 19G Scott Country and the Fairy spell broken only through the fervent intercessions of seven neighbouring churches. Of Dr. John Brown's beloved Minchmoor. lying between SATYR SVKES Tweed and Yarrow, a monarch among hills, clustered o'er with memories, hallowed and unhallowed, how much might be said. Oh, the silence of noonday on its heathery top — the fearful loneliness — the acute sense Traquair and St. Ronan's 197 of human littleness one feels amidst the " mountain infinities," with the interminable stretch of sombred moorland, and the wind soughin' from the blind "hopes" away down to the green glens beneath! There is the path by which Montrose fled from the fateful Philiphaugh, scurrying as fast as he could to Traquair. By the same road, too, Boyd, Earl of Arran, crossed Minchmoor to deliver James V.'s message to the Outlaw Murray — the Border " Robin Hood"" — in his "keep" at Hangingshaw. Tales of buried treasure cling to Minchmoor, and its cool Cheese Well is a fairies' shrine. From the Tweed to the Yarrow, by the broad brow of the memory-haunted height, is an ideal summer pilgrimage — and how dear Dr. John has described it ! Let his " Minch- moor " be our guide thither. The solitariness of the old hill-path has been as profound and the air around it as pure and bracing as they still are. But the wild, unhappy days of Border stunn iind drang are long over, and on the Tweed and Yarrow dales the spirit of a healthier rivalry has long been settled. Surely, then, Traquair may well be styled the Parnassus of the Scott Country. Nor is quaint Pennecuik far from the mark when he says : " On fair Tweedside, from Berwick to the Beild, Traquair, for beauty, fairly wins the field ; So many charms by Nature and by Art Do there combine to captivate the heart And please the eye with what is fine and rare, Few other seats can match with sweet Traquair." 98 Scott Country Traquair and St. Ronan's I !>*' In the olden time Traquair was a much more impor- tant place than Innerleithen, its sister parish. Thinj^s are now vastly altered. Traquair has dwindled to a mere hamlet, and the glory of its once royal residence has grown sadly dim, whilst Innerleithen, extending itself by leaps and bounds, is now a "burgh toun " and a flourishing commercial centre. What in Scott's day was only a straggling village thatched and white- washed, with less than 600 inhabitants, has now a population of over 3,000. Here Scott is believed to ha\e laid the scene of " St. Ronan's Well," published in 1823 — his one story of contemporary social life. " As Laidlaw, Scott, and Lockhart were riding along the brow of the triple - peaked Eildon Hills," says Mr. Andrew Lang, "Scott mentioned 'the row ' that was going on in Paris about ' Quentin Durward.' ' I can't but think I could make better play still with something German,' he said. Laidlaw grumbled at this : ' You are always best, like Helen MacGregor, when your foot is on your native heath ; and I have often thought that if you were to write a novel, and lay the scene here in the very year you were writing it, you would exceed yourself.' ' Hame's hame,' quoth Scott, smiling, ' be it ever sae hamely,' and Laidlaw bade him ' stick to Melrose in 1823.' Laidlaw and Lockhart believed that this conversation suggested ' St. Ronan's Well,' the scene of which has been claimed as their own by the people of Innerleithen, 200 Scott Country This little town is beautifully situated where the hills of Tweed are steepest, and least resemble the bosses verddtres of Prosper Merimee. It is now a manufac- turing town, like its neighbours, and contributes its quota to the pollution of the ' glittering and resolute streams of Tweed.' The pilgrim will scarce rival Tyrrel's feat of catching a clean-run salmon in summer, but the scenes are extremely pleasing, and, indeed, from this point to Dryburgh, the beautiful and fabled river is at its loveliest. Lockhart describes the prosperity which soon flowed into Innerleithen, and the St. Ronan's Games at which the Ettrick Shepherd presided glee- fully. They are still held, but never will come again such another Shepherd, or such contests with the Flying Tailor of Ettrick." Innerleithen, anciently Hornehuntersland, first comes into notice about the year 1159, when a son of Malcolm the Maiden met his death by drowning in the Tweed, which circumstance probably survives in Droonpouch, a deep, dark pool near Leithenfoot. The rise of the woollen industry in 1790, and the discovery of the Doos" Well about the same time — by-and-by developed into the famous Spa — were the beginnings of the modern thriving township. Shortly after the publication of Scott's romance, Innerleithen, colloquially styled St. Ronan's, rose rapidly in repute as a popular v atering-place, and is still one of the most attractive summer resorts in Scotland. CHAPTER XI PICTURESgUE PEEBLES Mention of Peebles recalls at once the pet phrase of the district: "Peebles for pleasure." One is not sur- prised that the saying should have stuck to the trim and snug capital of Tweeddale. The place has steadily grown in attractiveness, and is now one of the neatest and most comfortable - looking towns on Tweedside. When royal Jamie penned his quaintly picturesque poem " Peblis to the Play," he had for theme the famous Beltane Festival, with all its flow of fun and frolic. It was the main event of the year at Peebles, no longer a religious celebration in honour of Baal the Sun -god, but a kind of fair or rustic holiday in which all manner of amusements, and a spirit of general good-fellowship, was the order of the day. Royalty favoured Peebles. From its proximity to the best Border hunting-grounds, the Scottish Sovereigns frequently resorted thither, and charters by several of them are dated "from our town of Peebles." James I. especially gave his patronage to the place, and the May 202 Scott Country Day merr)-making, we may be sure, had a singular fascination for the rhyming reveller : " At Beltane, when ilk body bounds To Peblis to the Play, To hear the singing and the sounds Their solace sooth to say ; By firth and forest forth they found,* They graythit t them full gay ; God wait that wald they do that stound,; For it was their Feast day. They said, Of Peblis to the Play." In " Christis Kirk on the Grene " the writer — prob- ably also James I. — makes further allusion to the pleasurableness of Peebles : " Was never in Scotland heard nor seen Sic dancing nor deray ;§ Neither at Falkland on the grene Nor Peblis at the Play." Lord Cockburn's comparison " as quiet as the grave or as Peebles,'' is a witticism of the past. P^ollowing the Union of 17:7, Peebles seems to have sunk into such another Sleepy Hollow as Washington Irving describes. But under modern conditions it has more than recovered its old vitality. Nor is the proverbial characteristic likely to be again lost. The rise of the woollen industry, with many improvements in the town and neighbourhood, the erection of a palatial hydro- * Went. . t Dressed. + Time. :j Revelrv. Picturesque Peebles 203 204 Scott Country pathic, the salubrious hill air, and the commendable cleanness of the place, all combine to render Peebles a popular commercial centre and country residence not easily equalled. Delightfully placed on a peninsula at the junction of the Eddleston Water with the Tweed, in the bosom of the sweetly-sculpturesque hills which hem it in, green-mantled, and heather or wood clad, the Tweed flanking its southern aspect, Peebles enjoys a charming natural situation. Around it will be found some of the prettiest scenery in the Lowlands, and the romantic and poetic associations are uniquely interesting. The wand of the Magician has touched some of its fairest nooks, making them classic for ever; and over many another spot, that might otherwise have remained un- visited and unknown, the halo of the unforgotten days casts a storied glamour. Peebles, like Hawick. Jed- burgh, Melrose, and other Border towns, derives its name from the Gadeni, or Romanized Britons, who pitched here, in those far-away times, their tents or "pebylls." A river promontory was a favourite settle- ment, chosen principally for purposes of protection. The original Peebles consisted of a few stockaded shielings set up in a clearing of the far-spreading Caledonian F~orest. From this primitive condition it passed to the more permanent character of a twelfth- century township, when it flrst appears on the page of authentic historv. The earliest references are in Picturesque Peebles 205 connection with its ecclesiastical establishments, long in ruins. The first Christian sanctuary, in all likeli- hood, was founded by St. Kentigcrn himself, followed by another to his memory many years afterwards. Mention seems to be made of some such edifice as far back as 1116, but nothing now remains of it. In 1 195 a church, probably incorporated with Kentigern's, was dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle. Of this only the tow^er and a fragmentary wall are left standing in the centre of the parish burying-ground. * The tower was " restored " by Dr. William Chambers in 1883, and under its shadow he sleeps among his ancestors. A tablet in memory of his munificence is inserted in the eastern wall immediately above the doorw^ay. St. Andrew's became in course of time a collegiate church, with twelve richly -endowed altars or prebends. In 1549 the English burned it, and, though partially renovated, it ceased at the Reforma- tion to be the parish church. Tradition declares that Cromwell's dragoons converted the building into a stable during the operations against Neidpath in 1650. From 1560 to 1784 the Cross Kirk, or Kirk of the Holy Rood, the most important religious house in the * There is a tlieory that the ruins belong to a chapel in honour of the Virgin, erected by John of Pebyls in 1363 ; that the 1195 St. Andrew's stood to the east of the tower, and was destroyed by fire in 1406, after which event that the name St. Andrew was transferred to the Chapel of the Virgin. How far this may be correct it is impossible to say. 20 fi Scott Country- shire, was the church of the parish. The chronicler John of Fordun. writing between the years 1384 and 1387, relates how in May, 1261, in the thirteenth year of King Alexander III., a stately and venerable cross ST. ANDREW S TOWEK. was found at Peebles, in the presence of good men, priests, clerics, and burgesses. " But it is quite unknown,'" he says, " in what year and by what persons it was hidden there. It is, however, believed that it was hidden by some of the faithful about the year of our Lord 296, while Maximian's persecution was raging in Britain. Not long Picturesque Peebles 207 after this a stone urn was discovered there, about three or four paces from the spot where that glorious cross had been found. It contained the ashes and bones of a man's body — torn Hmb from hmb, as it were. Whose relics these are no one knows as yet. Some, however, think they are the relics of him whose name was found written on the very stone wherein that holy cross was lying. Now there was carved on that stone, outside, ' Tomb of the Bishop, Saint Nicholas.' Moreover, in the very spot where the cross was found, many a miracle was and is wrought by that cross ; and the people poured and still pour thither in crowds, devoutly bringing CROSS KIKK. their offerings and vows to God. Wherefore the King, by the advice of the Bishop of Glasgow, had a handsome church made there, to the honour of God and the Holy Cross. ' That this cross was long regarded as part of the true Calvary Cross is apparent from an incident during James V.'s visit to Peebles in 1529. On that occasion the King bestowed a mark of his favour on the Cross Kirk, "quhair," it was said, " ane pairt of the verray Croce that our Salvatour was crucifyit on is honorit and kepit." The church rose to conventual dignity, 208 Scott Country accommodating seventy Red or Trinity Friars. Not wholly escaping the violence of the English invasions, or the later troubles of the Reformation, the building remained till 1784, when its walls were torn down to within a few feet of the ground, and the stones used in the construction of the parish church, the prede- cessor of the present handsome edifice. Neidpath, by some believed to be the castle of Peebles, may be considered the "lion" of the locality. There were several peels and bastle-houses in and around Peebles, but all have disappeared. " Neidpath alone stands venerable and picturesque, on its rocky eminence, overlooking the winding Tweed. It is indeed a ruin, but a stately ruin. Its times of splendour and power have long since vanished, yet there is a silent majesty about it which com- mands respect. Time was when nobles, and even monarchs, entered its portals, and armed men were gathered within its walls ; when its long avenue was lined by stately trees, and a forest of yews spread darkly around it ; when its orchard on the hillside basked in the rays of the summer sun, and its garden was brilliant with flowers ; when its well-defined terraces along the banks of the silvery stream formed the favourite promenade for the ladies and their attendant maids, and when a rude hospitality was dispensed in its halls.'* From Neidpath some of the finest views of Peebles and the Tweed are obtainable, recalling Pennecuik's lines : " The noble Neidpath Peebles overlooks. With its fair bridge, and Tweed's meandering crooks ; Upon a rock it proud and stately stands. And to the fields about gives forth commands." * "Glimpses of Peebles," by Rev. Alexander Williamson, D.D a native of the town. Picturesque Peebles 209 When or by whom Neidpath was built is unknown. When the hght of history first falls upon it, it was held by the Frisels or Frasers, an old Tweeddale family, long settled at Fruid and Oliver in Tweeds- muir. Sir Simon Fraser was the redoubtable hero of Roslin Moor in 1303. From the Frasers it passed by marriage to the Hays of Yester, Lords of Tweed- dale, and by the poetic third Earl it was sold in 1686 to the Duke of Queensberry, who gifted it to his second son, the Earl of March, whose grandson, the notorious and dissolute "old O," fourth Duke of 14 210 Scott Country Queensberry. wrought the ruin of the estate. In 1795 he dismantled the magnificent old woods, the glory of the neighbourhood, '" leaving the banks a shelterless wilderness," an act of spoliation scathingly stigmatized by Wordsworth in his •' Sonnet com- posed at Castle ": " Degenerate Douglas ! oh, the unworthy Lord ! Whom mere despite of heart could so far please, And love of havoc (for with such disease Fame taxes him), that he could send forth word To level with the dust a noble horde, A brotherhood of venerable trees, Leaving an ancient dome and towers like these Beggared and outraged ! Many hearts deplored The fate of those old trees ; and oft with pain The traveller at this day will stop and gaze On wrongs, which Nature scarcely seems to heed ; For sheltered places, bosoms, nooks, and bays. And the pure mountains, and the gentle Tweed, And the green silent pastures yet remain."* A hundred years have done much to retrieve the result of that rash and contemptible deed. The Neidpath scenery is still of the fairest, and the number of walks by river -bank and hillside are hardly less attractive than under the glow of the olden days. * The Duke's niotive was to spite the heir of entail— a distant relative. He did the same thing at Drumlanrig, and Burns's con- demnation is even stronger than the Lake Poets. Lockhart says, referring to Wordsworth's sonnet, that " few lines in the language were more frequently in Scott's mouth." Picturesque Peebles 211 Peebles has many pleasing literary associations. From the time of James I. to the present day the poetical succession has been continued. The " Thrie Tailes of the Thrie Priests of Peblis " is the work of a nameless sixteenth-century bard, possibly, as is suggested, the " gud, gentill Stobo " of Dunbar's " Lament." The third Earl of Tweeddale, when Lord Yester (1645-1713), struck the " key-note of Tweedside song " in a quaint lyric written at Neid- path : " When Maggie and I were aquaint, I carried my noddle fu' hie ; Nae Hntwhite in a' the gay plain, Nae gowdspink* sae bonnie as she I I whistled, I piped, and I sang ; I wooed, but I cam' nae great speed ; Therefore I maun wander abroad, And lay my banes far frae the Tweed. " To Maggie my love did I tell. My tears did my passion express ; Alas ! for I lo'ed her ower v\el]. And the women lo'e sic a man less. Her heart it was frozen and cauld ; Her pride had my ruin decreed ; Therefore I maun wander abroad. And lay my banes far frae the Tweed." Both Scott and Campbell have sung of the unhappy " Maid of Neidpath," spent with grief and disease, waiting her lover on the castle walls, and beholding * Goldfinch. 14—2 212 Scott Country him ride past all unconscious of her identity. Scott's ballad, of singular beauty, begins : " O lovers' eyes are sharp to see, And lovers' ears in hearing ; And love, in life's extremity, Can lend an hour of cheering. Disease had been in Mary's bower, And slow decay from mourning, Though now she sits on Neidpath's tower To watch her love's returning ;" and. passing over two stanzas, ends thus : " He came — he passed— a heedless gaze, As o'er some stranger glancing ; Her welcome, spoke in faltering phrase. Lost in his courser's prancing — The castle arch, whose hollow tone Returns each whisper spoken. Could scarcely catch the feeble moan Which told her heart was broken." In his notes to the poem Scott sets the scene of this pathetic incident at Peebles, in a house perhaps the most historic in the town. The property of the Cross Church, and residence of the Deans of Tweeddale, it came into the possession of the Hays, passing with the Neidpath estate to the Oueensberry family, and, under the name of Queensberry Lodge, wa^ the town house of the Earls of March. Here "Old O" was born in 1725. In i7!Si he sold the propert}- to Provost Reitl, from whose representative it was bought by William Chambers in 1857. and at Picturesque Peebles 213 considerable cost remodelled and fitted up for purposes of social improvement, and presented as a free gift to the burgh. With a well-appointed Library, an interesting county Museum, an Art Gallery, and other accessories, the Chambers Institution deserves well of the public. Here is preserved lUmbury's picture, "Affliction," an insignificant brown print, memorable for its association with the only meeting between Burns and Scott in 1786, at the Edinburgh house of Professor Ferguson.* William (b, 1800) and Robert Chambers (b. 1802), both Peebleans, from comparative obscurity and poverty rose to fame and opulence as the most enterprising publishers of the time, the pioneers of cheap, whole- some literature, and themselves able and patriotic litterateurs. Each became LL.D. William was Lord Provost of Edinburgh ; restored St. Giles's Cathedral ; had the chief share in a gigantic City Improvement Scheme; and shortly before his death received the offer of a baronetcy. Glenormiston, where he resided and wrote his "History of Peeblesshire," lies pleasantly between Peebles and Innerleithen. Of the two brothers, Robert was the more literary. He was on the most cordial terms with Scott, and many a happy hour they * The old Cross of Teebles stood for many yeais in the quad- rangle of the Institution. In 1895 it was re-erected on its former site at the junction of the High Street, Eastgate, and Northgate. Peebles was a walled town, hence the frequency of the word " gate." 214 Scott Country spent together. His books on Scottish subjects have done much to create interest in the history and htera- ture of the countr}^ ; and he was the author of some beautiful songs and old ballad imitations. He died in 1871. Almost next door to the Chambers's birthplace, in Biggiesknowe, was born in 1829 John \'eitch, one of the lealest sons of the " auld burgh toon," whose memory will not soon be forgotten. No man since Scott's day did so much for the Borders. It is not too much to style him "the latter-day Scott" and " the Scottish Wordsworth." Familiar with the stor}' of the Scott Country in all its details by extensive reading and research, and from personal acquaintance with every nook and cranny, no one was better equipped or more qualified to be its historian and interpreter. His work on the " History and Poetry of the Scottish Border " is the richest literary legacy since the publication of Scotfs " Minstrelsy."" No lover of Sir Walter or of his land can dispense with these enchanting volumes. They form the finest hand- book to the Border, and without them it will be im- possible to understand its many-sided history. \'eitch's poetry, too — chiefly local — is full of the old C}-mric fire, and a perusal of " Hillside Rhymes " and of " Tweed " or " Merlin '" will only sharpen the appetite for the stronger food of the " Histor}-,"" Most of his philosophical work was done at Biggiesknowe, and at The Loaning, the home of his later vears, where he Picturesque Peebles 15 died September 3, 1894. A plain, unpretentious cross — so characteristic of the man — marks his resting-place by the tower of old St. Andrew's. A Memorial Foun- 'KOl-ESSOR VEITCH. tain — perhaps not all it might have been — stands in the High Street, and in his favourite Manor Valley kindly hands have erected a Veitch Cairn, while Glasgow University emblazons in bronze his gifts as 216 Scott Country student and Professor. Another notable figure in the philosophical world was born at Peebles in 1830 — Pro- fessor Henry Calderwood — whose varied powers as preacher, educationist, and politician, were ungrudgingly devoted to the well-being of the community. Calder- wood had a real love for the spot of his nativity, and the record of his farewell visit is the most touching passage in the recently-published Biography : " He comes to gaze once more upon the scenes of his boj'hood. His heart has lost none of its constancy. He loves the old haunts still. The scene is full of tenderness and pathos. When he came in sight of Tweed Bridge and Cademuir he said : ' It is such a delight to come back to the hills of one's youth'; and for two hours he wandered round the outskirts, reviving memories of the olden times. In the afternoon he said : ' I want to visit the churchyard, and see the graves of my people.' I can see him now, standing with bared head, reading the names that are inscribed upon the tombstones. Then, when he had finished, ' Take me,' he said, ' to Professor Veitch's grave.' On the stone he read, 'John Veitch.' There was a fresh cross of flowers lying. It had been laid there that day by loving hands. He stood and repeated it once and again, ' John Veitch ! John Veitch ! How simple ! But death simplifies all things. Now I want lo see the autumn tints on the Neidpath woods,' he said ; and thither we went, he resting several times on the brae to take a breath. At the top he looked long at the golden hues of the dying foliage, but not a word did he speak." Professor Calderwood died November 19, 1897. The house in which he was born is on the north side of the High Street, and may be identified from a curiously carved stone in front with the words " God provides a rich inhcritans, 171 7, W.T." Thomas Smibert was the poet-physician of Peebles. Hardly anything Picturesque Peebles 217 finer than his " Scottish Widow's Lament " has been penned—" one of the truest and most pathetic pictures of that simple life of joy and sorrow with which we may meet any day in the Tweedside glens." " Afore the Lammas tide Had dun'd the birken-tree, In a' our water-side Nae wife was blest like me ; A kind gudeman, and twa Sweet bairns were round me here, But they're a' ta'en awa' Sin' the fa' o' the year. * * * * " I downa look a-field For aye I trow I see The form that was a beild To my wee bairns and me ; But wind, and weet, and snaw, They never mair can fear, Sin' they a' got the ca' In the fa' o' the year. * * * * " I ettle whiles to spin, But wee, wee patterin' feet Come rinnin' oot and in. And then I just maun greet : I ken it's fancy a' And faster rows the tear, That my a' dwined awa' In the fa' o' the year." Dr. Pennecuik of Romanno was another member of the rhyming craft, and well known in the district. His " Description of Tweeddale " is a mine of curious 218 Scott Country and minute information. Mungo Park practised as a country surgeon in Peebles for three j-ears, and was probably a prototype of Gideon Gray in the " Surgeon's Daughter." The house in which he resided is in the Northgate, and a tablet marks the site of his surgery, a few doors east from the Chambers Institution. The inimitable " Meg Dods of the Cleikum Inn " at St. Ronan's, Scott's " landlady of the olden world," found her original in Miss Ritchie of the Cross Keys, the old town-house of the Cardrona Williamsons, erected in 1653. The then new Tontine, the " hotle " of which Meg always spoke with scorn, stands in the High Street. Wordsworth visited Peebles in 1803, and Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal is full of kindliest re- collections of the place and people. " The Tweed," she says, " is a name which has been sweet to my ears almost as far back as I can remember anything. All that we saw, and felt, and heard, combined to excite our sensation of pensive and still pleasure." Alexander Smith wrote within St. Mary's Mount a dozen or so characteristic verses in praise of Tweed : " And all through the summer morning I felt it a joy indeed To whisper again and again to myself, This is the voice of the Tweed." Scott made frequent visits to Peebles and Neidpath. " He spoke [to the Wordsworths] of cheerful days he had spent in that castle not manj- years ago when it Picturesque Peebles 219 was inhabited by Professor Ferguson and his family. From Ncidpath the Professor removed to Hallyards ^^^^^^H^^^^^^^^^H in Manor, and in July. 1797, whilst on their way to the Enghsh Lake district, Scott and his brother John were entertained at Hallyards. There are few glens 220 Scott Country more fair or more romantic than Manor. Long before Scott cast the witchery of his genius around this " sweetest vale of all the South," it was tilled with a host of historic memories. The spirit of the past seems to brood over it. You n^ight almost expect to meet the ghost- forms of its departed still haunting their pastoral solitudes. There is such an air of myster}- around it, and of old-world glamour, that the mind can hardly rid itself of this feeling. In the Manor Valley more than in any other the spell of the past seems to be quickened and deepened. From Manor, Scott drew inspiration for the first of the " Tales of my Landlord," published sixteen years after his visit. It was on the occasion of his Hall- yards holiday that he met and had the terribly weird interview with David Ritchie — so well described by William Chambers— when even Scott, strong and fearless man as he was, became pale as ashes, and his person was agitated in every limb. A character so extraordinary, or circumstances so uncanny, were not to be forgotten, and by-and-by " Bowed Davie," who had sought the seclusion of Manor in which to hide his deformity, became known to undreamt - of multitudes as " Elshender the Recluse," and the " Black Dwarf" of Mucklestane Moor. Born at Easter Happrew, in the parish of Stobo, in 1740, he received practically no education, and was sent to learn the trade of brush-making at Edinburgh, where his poor, Picturesque Peebles 221 distorted tigure, huge misshapen feet, legs like a pair of corkscrews, and features ogreish in their preter- natural ugliness, a low, receding forehead, deep-set black eyes, a long, sharp nose almost meeting his THE BLACK DWARF [ill jiuillt of Hilllyaith)- far-projecting chin, made him only a butt for the bitterest caricature. Disappcjintcd, grieved, broken in temper, a wretched misanthrope, he returned to his native glens, where the remainder of his lonely, mysterious life was passed. Notwithstanding its hard 222 Scott Country conditions, and the lack of opportunity for self- improvement, he could read history and appreciate the epics of Mihcii and Shcnstone's Pastorals. He uloried in Allan Ramsav, but hated Burns. An ardent Picturesque Peebles 223 Nature-lover, with a well-flowered garden, a bee-skep or two, and a cat, a dog, and a goat of which he was passionately fond, David the Solitary of Manor was not without some of the best human traits and a " twinkle," at least, as Veitch puts it, of the divine. His self- built hut of turf and stones lasted till 1802, when a more substantial structure was set up for him by the kindly laird. It is this which is the chief shrine of Manor — slated now and altered somewhat, yet practically the identical house which he inhabited for nine years. His grave is in Manor Kirkyard, and a plain, neat stone proclaims to the passer-by his name and immortal title : " In Memory of David Ritchie, the original of the ' Black Dwarf.' Died 1811. Erected by W. and R. Chambers, 1845."* One could spend a delightfully long summer day in Manor, and be able to sing with Robert Giltillan : "Where Manor stream rins blythe an' clear, And Castlehill's white wa's appear, I spent ae day, aboon a' days, By Manor stream, 'mang Manor braes. The purple healh was just in bloom, And bonnie waved the upland broom ; Ihe flocks on flowery braes lay still, Or, heedless, wander'd at their will." * Probably the best account of the historical Dwarf, and of his hardly less remarkable sister, is that given by Robert Chambers in " Illustrations of the Author of Waverley." Professor Veitch's sketch in " Border Essays " should also be read. Chapter xvi. of the novel reproduces with Ljraphic force Scott's own interview of 1797. 224 Scott Country Manor had no fewer than ten peel-towers or keeps. Only one is in good preservation — Barns, for close on 500 years the abode of the Burnetts, around which John Buchan has woven his stirring Tweedside romance, "John Burnet of Barns." Posso, an ancient Naesmyth heritage, was celebrated for its falcons, and in the "Bride of Lammermoor " Henry Ashton gets his BARNS TOWKU. hawks from " an eyry, all the way at Posso," an allusion traceable to Scott's visit to Manor. St. Gordian's* Cross — " To the dead in Christ, who sleep in God's acre, St. Gordian's Kirk, in peace " — further up the valley, near the junction of Newholm Hope Burn * St. Gordian was a Roman Chiibtian of the fourth century, whose name became connected at a very early period with the Manor Valley. Picturesque Peebles 225 with the Manor, marks the site of the ancient kirk of the parish. " The mists enshroud it pale, and then it glows With sunshine fire, robed now in grief, and now In glory ; passing burns together join Their voices in one ever-flowing hymn"; g vil^fi^ ^H ^^BS1?^>^^Hh HI '^ ^^H m !■ ST. GORDIAN S CROSS. And yet above it storm wild cries of birds, As if there were a trouble on the earth : Lone scene soft-touched by that lone cross, and meet For meditative thought to stay and brood Upon the secret tie that binds in one Th' unworldly spirit living at the heart Of Nature, and the soul of Sacrifice." 15 226 Scott Country Countless generations of Manor men and women are at rest here. To them, in their day of strength, the valley was as beautiful as it is now, and their affection for it as deep and tender as any modern love. Manor reaps what they have sown in the long-ago ; and thus the great round world moves on, cycle after cycle, with unceasing change. " One generation passeth away, and another cometh," and "till the heavens be no more they shall not awake out of their sleep." CHAPTER XII THE TWEED UPLANDS The Scott Country may be said to be synonymous with the Vale of the Tweed. From its source in the Peeblesshire uplands till it touches the sea at Benwick — a little over a hundred miles — the Tweed with its tributaries drains practically all the Scottish Border. For wealth of romance combined with pre-eminent and varied natural beauty the Tweed is without rival among Scottish streams. Around the hills that guard its source and in its first twenty miles or so, the romantic associations of the river are exceedingly striking. In- deed, it has been said that, so far as this element is concerned, the uplands are richer and stronger than either the middle or lower reaches. Doubtless the seclusion by which the springs of the Tweed have been so long hemmed in from the outer world, and the con- sequent primitiveness of the locality, have helped to preserve to a much later period many a memory that would otherwise have perished in a more prosaic 15—2 228 Scott Country environment. Some of the oldest Scottish traditions hnger around the Tweed uplands in all their native purity, and are retold to-day as they must have been centuries ago. It is a regret that Scott, who was familiar with Tweedside from source to sea, did not draw, as he might have done, in fuller measure from a storehouse so deep and overflowing. The T^veed takes its rise far up among the Southern Highlands in the same range of hills which give birth to the Annan and the Clyde : " Annan, Tweed, and Clyde, Rise a' out o' ae hillside." An ideal spot, wrapped in the wildness of uncultivated Nature, with nothing to disturb its sweet pastoral simplicity, one can scarcely imagine a scene more peaceful, and more soothing to the human spirit. We are miles from the smoky city, and the nearest village — a mere clachan — is distant more than an hour's journey. How profound and "awesome" is the soli- tude of the hill country I and yet, constantly floating across the wide expanse of moorland, there seems to come the music of many mysterious sounds — " The undefinecj and mingled hum, Voice of the desert never dumb." To him with open eye and ear, there will be, in spite of the upland " melanchoh," as Wordsworth calls it. The Tweed Uplands 229 some of the fairest Nature-N'isions and symphonies the most rapturous. ' Thou dost teach by solitude of glens, And wonders of the sky, the shepherd lad Who ever haunts thy hills, till in him grows The deep-impassioned heart, and in quaint phrase He graphic sets both what he sees and feels— Sometimes in awe, sometimes in stirring love — Of daily wonders all around his path, Not for him wonders, rather daily food. Unconscious nurture of the inner soul That gropes amid sense-visions for its God 1" From a small space of meadowland sentinelled by Dr. " Rab " Brown's "great round-backed, kindly, solemn hills," and glistening like a bright eye among the surrounding greenery, Tweed first catches the light of day. A lonely Well— caller, clear, inspiring—" with- out shelter of wall or tree, open to the sun and all the winds, ever the same, self-contained, all-sufficient ; needing no outward help from stream or shower, but fed from its own unseen, unfailing spring," is the fountain-head of the silver Tweed, Sir Walter's favourite river — to him enchanting, and by him enchanted. Should not Tweed's \\^ell be described as the Scottish Castalia ? May it not also have a portion of the Parnassian gift ? No other spot, at any rate, has quite the same claim. What a halo of romance hangs over it ! " And all through the stretch of the stream, To the lap of Berwick Bay,"' 230 Scott Country was there ever such a flood-tide of song or such power of " gramarj-e " ? Tweed's Well is the centre of many interesting associations. Here flourished the ancient Forest of Caledon with its thousand birks and ha/els. Through its wilds have wandered such dimly-historic figures as Merlin, the weird, half-crazed Minstrel of Upper Tweed- dale — " Left to dark soul frenzy, fled Far from the dreaded field of Arderydd. He knew not where, nor recked, and he was found Lone haunter of the Wood of Caledon ;" Taliessin, Bard of the \\'hite Brow (whence probably we have the name Talla) : Kentigern, Apostle of Strathclyde, who introduced Christianity to the Tweed \'alley ; and after him, with ceaseless missionary effort. Cuthbert, the best known of the Border Saints. Other forms, shadow-like, pass before us— Gvvenddoleu, Prince of the pagan Cymri, defending his ancestral Druidism against the Christian Rydderch Hael the victor in a great fight for the new faith at Arderydd on the Liddel ; and mystic Arthur himself, "of fresh aventours dream- ing."" It is believed that the " Wizard "' Michael Scot was a native of the Tweed uplands, and legends of his doings are still told in the district.* Here, too, at a later date, the good Lord James Douglas swore fealty * See J. Wood Brown's "Life and Legend of Michael Scot," 1897. The Tweed Uplands 231 to Bruce bound for Scone. Tweed's Cross was a favourite wayside shrine — a holy place — consecrated, like the fountain close by, to the memory of the first Gospel messenger on Tweedside, while it is almost [Sir George Reid. P.RS.A. tweed's well certain that this Well-eye among the hills was the " fons Merlini " haunted by the sad-souled Seer, where Kentigern met and conversed with him, and heard his confession, and when Merlin, bidding farewell to 232 Scott Country his old Nature -worship, entered the Christian fold. The Scottish Sovereigns, from the time of Kenneth the Grim to Queen Mary and James \T., held many a gala-day in the Tweed uplands on the occasion of their great hunting expeditions. Kenneth's love for '• bonnie Bertha of Badlieu," rousing the jealousy of his Queen, and ending in the murder of the forest maiden, is one of our earliest-known legends. Covenant memories cling to Tweedhopefoot and Tweedshaws, and by Core- head and the Devil's Beef-tub on the Annan side of the watershed. And all readers of Dr. Brown's " Enterkin " will remember the touching reference to the tragedy of 1831, when both guard and driver of the Moffat mail-coach perished in one of the wildest snow - storms that ever raged on the Tweedsmuir heights. Some seven miles from the '' Well " we touch the hamlet of Tweedsmuir, its kirk spire showing out clear against the sky-line. Here, in pre-Disruption days, Chalmers and Guthrie preached, and man)- memories cling to the bonnie green knowe between Tweed and Talla, where sleep countless generations of " the Muir." " Scarcely a sweeter spot could be found," says Jean L. Watson, " in which to sleep the sleep that knows no waking than this lonely churchyard. In their lives these silent ones dwelt amidst the wild and lone, and here still they rest without fear of disturbance, and their requiem is the wind whistling The Tweed Uplands 233 through the glen or the song of the birds of the moor- land." " And I could wish, when death's cold hand Has stilled this heart of mine, That o'er my last low bed of death Might swell your notes divine." There is John Hunter's grave and the stone relettered by " Old Mortality." Here LYES JOHN HUNTER Martyr who was cruely murdered at corehead BY Col : James Douglas and his party for his adherance to the word of god and Scotland's Covenanted WORK OF Reformation 1685. Erected in the y cm- 1726. When Zion's King was Robbed of his right His witnesses in Scotland put to flight When popish prelats and Indulgancie Combin'd 'gainst Christ to Ruine Presbytrie All who would not unto their idols bow They socht them out and whom they found they slew For owning of Christ's cause I then did die My blood for vengeance on his en'mies did cry." And many another hero of the Covenant is at rest in this sweetest of upland God's acres. How quaintly touching the lines on this stone : Death pities not the aged head, Nor manhood fresh and green, But blends the locks of eighty-five With ringlets of sixteen ;" 234 or on that other Scott Country Whate'er could die of William Ker Lies quietly in earth's bosom here ; His better part, with heirs of grace, We hope now dwells in heavenly place. This hopeful youth at fifteen years Left all his friends bedewed in tears. The objects of God's dearest love Are called, when young, to joys above ; How pious, modest, and sincere, The coming judgment will declare." TWEEDSMUIR. Tweedsmuir is a parish of the Covenant. Here are some entries from the Session Records : "No session kept by reason of the elders being all at conventicles." " No public sermon, soldiers being sent to apprehend the minister, but he, receiving notification of their design, went away and retired," " No meeting this day for The Tweed Uplands 235 fear of the eneni}-." " The collection this day to be given to a man for acting as watch during the time of sermon." ''There was no sermon, the ministers not " meeting " mentioned in chapter xviii. cjf the " Heart of Midlothian," where Scoi i m 1 - Douce Davie Deans TALLA LINNS. a silent but much-impressed spectator. " The plarce was remarkably well adapted for such an assembly. It w'as a wild and very sequestered dell in Tweeddale, surrounded by high hills, and far remote from human habitation. A small river, or rather a mountain torrent, called the Talla breaks down the glen with great fury, 236 Scott Country dashing successive!}' over a number of small cascades, which has procured the spot the name of Talk Linns. Here the leaders among the scattered adherents of the Covenant, men who, in their banishment from human society, and in the recollection of the severities to which they had been exposed, had become at once sullen in their tempers and fantastic in their religious opinions, met with arms in their hands, and by the side of the torrent discussed, with a turbulence which the noise of the stream could not drown, points of con- troversy as empty and unsubstantial as its foam." Alexander and Michael Shields, Peden the Prophet, James Renwick, and others, have " conventicled " amid the wild recesses of the Talla and the dark bouldery glen of Gameshope, the wildest and most picturesque in Peeblesshire, where also Donald's Clench preserves its association with Cargill, the "outed" minister of the Barony. " It will be a bloody night in Gemsop this," is the opening sentence of James Hogg's " Brownie of Bodsbeck." Of the Beild, the birthplace of Dr. John Ker, the most gifted preacher of his denomination, and the Crook Inn, some good Covenant stories are handed d(3wn. There was the landlady of the Crook, who built up a hunted hillman in her peat-stack, and the parish abounds in traditions of similar hair-breadth escapes. Chambers's story, " Neil Maclaren," is founded on a well-known Crook incident, and Hamilton Paul's witty effusion " Jeanie o" the Crook," is always a The Tweed Uplands 237 favourite. At the Crook the famous Bishop Forbes put up during one of his many tours. Lord Cockburn rested here on Circuit and other journeys, and has described Tweedsmuir Church as the " most prettily situated in Scotkmd." Burns and Thomas Campbell were familiar with the district. The former baited frequently at the Beild, while of the latter, one of Dr. John Brown's " Enterkin " stories will bear re- peating. " Campbell, in his young days, had walked up as far as the Beild [probably from Broughton Manse, the home of his old college friend Paul], and had got snug into bed after his tumbler of toddy, when there was a knock at the door. ' Come in !' and behold, with a candle in her hand, stood the pretty maiden M'ho had gi\'en him his supper, in her short-gown and petticoat. ' Please, sir, could ye tak' a neebor into yer bed ?' ' With all my heart,' said the imaginative, susceptible poet, starting gaily up. ' Thank ye, sir, for the Moffat carrier's just come in a' wat, and there's no a single ither place.' Up came the huge and reeking man ; exit the dainty little woman." Scott passed through Tweedsmuir in 1797, and again with Skene during the Ashestiel years. Christopher North extols the place in his " Streams " essay, and here the Shepherd was his occasional companion. Russel of the Scotsman, Shairp, Knight, who spent his honeymoon here, Blackie, Veitch, Lang, are all well-known names on Upper Tweedside. The closing chapters of William Black's 238 Scott Country '* Strange Adventures of a Phaeton " contain a graphic description of the scener}- between Moffat and Broughton, and of a night at the Crook;* and "John Strathesk " — long a yearly visitor — has drawn from the parish not a few of his delightful delineations of Scottish peasant life. The site of the ancient Castle of Oliver, on a rising ground above the church to the left of the Tweed, is perhaps the most historic landmark in the localit}'. Built by Oliver Fraser in the reign of David I., it must have been a strongly fortified place — " grim guardian of the Upper Tw^eed." It was the most remote of a chain of fortalices placed at intervals on alternate sides of the vWer all the way from the Beild to Berwick, each within view of the next. Some of those towers were held by the Crown, others by the Barons, but all were raised for the defence of the country in those hazardous days. They served a twofold purpose, being used as local strongholds and as beacon-posts, communicating not only with each other, but with similar peel-houses in lateral glens. A signal-fire on any ot them was promptly answered by signal-fires on all ; and the flame by night or the smoke by day summoned the whole fighting population to arms. Hence the reference in the " Lay ": " a score of fires, I ween, From height, and hill, and clifif were seen ; Each with warlike tidings fraught ; Each from each the signal caught ; * Mr. Andrew Lang thinks that possibly the Crook suggested to Scott the •* Cleikum Inn " of St. Ronan's. The Tweed Uplands 289 Each after each they glanced to sight As stars arise upon the night ; They gleamed on many a dusky tarn, Haunted by the lonely earn ; On many a cairn's gray pyramid Where urns of mighty chiefs lie hid.' The Frasers were the most powerful feudal Barons in Peeblesshire. As Sheriffs of Tweeddale and holders of vast territorial possessions, they had full scope in the affairs of the time. The most notable bearer of the name was the hero of Roslin — Sir Simon, the friend of Wallace and Bruce, who were, no doubt, often enter- tained and sheltered in his e}'ry by the Tweed. In 1306, falling into the hands of the English, the year following the cruel fate of his beloved companion-in- arms, he was executed in London — "his head smyten off and placed upon London brig on a sper." "The statement," says Veitch, " that the last Sir Simon Eraser of Oliver left a son who founded the Northern houses of Lovat and Saltoun is wholly without historical founda- tion." Polmood is the next spot \\orth\' of note in the neighbourhood. A hunting-lodge of the Scottish Kings, held by the Hunter family from time immemorial, the estate was the subject of one of the most lengthened litigations on record.* Here Hogg laid the scene of * Adam Hunter, tenant in Altarstone, Stobo, was undoubtedly the legitimate heir to Polmood, and was so served by a Peebles jury in 1S02, but the case was referred to the Court of Session, and, ■ dragging on its weary course for fully forty years, ended unfavour- .^bly for the claimant. 240 Scott Country his " Bridal of Polmood," and with the Logan Lea and Mossfennan, a few miles further down the river, it has been the theme of some spirited old ballads : " There cam' three wooers out o' the West, Booted and spurred as ye weel micht see, And they lichted a' at Mossfennan Yett, A little below the Logan Lea. " Some say I lo'e young Powmood, And some say that he lo'es na me ; But I weel may compare wi' his bastard blood, Though I hadna a yowe on the Logan Lea." '-^ TS-^'.^^.^-^ -^i^^B^J^^^^ The Logan Lea recalls Linkumdoddie, an extinct weaving hamlet marked by a solitary ash-tree and a commemorative slab. Everybody has heard of Burns's " Willie Wastle " and his amiable spouse : " Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed, The spot they ca'ed it Linkumdoddie ; Willie was a wabster guid, Could stown a clue wi' ony bodie ; The Tweed Uplands 241 He had a wife was dour and din, O, tinkler Maidgie was her mither— Sic a wife as Willie had, I wadna gie a button for her !" There is the Logan Water danchig its way to the Tweed, and of the wabster's wife Burns sang that " her face wad fyle the Logan Water." Yonder is Kingledoors, to the left of Linkumdoddie, with memories of St. Cuth- bert and the hermit Cristin ; while on the right, at the mouth of the sweetest of green glens, nestles Stanhope, long the home of the Jacobite Murrays.* Mossfennan, dating as far back as the reign of Alexander XL, is shortly afterwards reached, and one of the finest land- scapes in the Tweed uplands stretches out in front. Here the valley widens and opens up, and the river takes a sudden bend eastwards. High overhead rises the shapely Rachan Hill crowned with firs and whin, and away down beneath, within a stone-cast of the stream, " dismantled Drummelzier " sits on its rocky knoll — the ghost of its former self, when like a king it ruled and struck terror to the heart of Tweedside. * Sir David Murray lost his all through the '45. His estates were forfeited, and he died abroad. His uncle, John Murray of Broughton — better known as "Evidence" Murray — was the Prince's secretary. After Culloden, he was concealed for a time in the Broughton district, but was discovered at Pohnood, the house of his brother-in-law, in June, 1746. To save his life, he turned King's evidence. He died in France in 1777. See the incident of " Broughton's Saucer" in Lockhart's "Life" — "Neither lip of me nor mine comes after Mr. Murray _of Broughton's." 16 242 Scott Country Now all is hushed and stil "the devouring dogs of war " here once broke loose " On the roofless tower For banner there waves the pale wall-flower ; And for sound of the trumpet, and roll of the drum, Comes the shriek of the owl on the night-wind borne ; And the turrets are fallen, the vaults are flown. And the bat rules the halls they called their own.'' DRUMMELZIER CASTLE. Here dwelt the Tweedies in their day of might. In the Introduction to the " Betrothed," Scott gives the origin of this once powerful clan — how the first of the name was the son of the water-spirit, "the genius of the Tweed," whose abode was the deep, dark Debbit Pool hard by the Castle walls. For this early Scottish legend The Tweed Uplands 243 there are several classical parallels. In the " Odyssey" we have the tradition of the beantiful nymph Tyro, enamoured of the Enipens and beguiled by Poseidon, in the shape of the river-god, and Diodes, son of Orsilochus, was the child begotten of Alpheus. By-and-by the Tweedies became the most influential family in the Upper Tweed Valley. Their names are found in the TINNIS CASTLE. history of every barony. Through conquest, trickery, and intermarriage, they girt themselves about with strength and territory. They were a bold, trouble- some, tyrannical, red-handed race, holding with an iron grip families less capable of resistance," and in- flicting the most shameless servitude on their vassals. Their coat of arms, a black bull's head with the motto 16 — 2 244 Scott Country " Thole and Think,"' was in no way characteristic of the clan. To "thole" w^as not at all in their nature, and their " thinking " had generally a large enough element of self behind it. They came to a sad finis — the last of the Drummelzier line being found in 1628 " a broken- down man in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, where he had been consigned by his cousin and remorseless creditor, MERLIN S GRAVE. Lord Hay of Yester, into whose family the lands had passed." Tinnis, or the Thane's Castle, whose ruins are seen jutting out from the pyramidal hillside — a singularly secure position at the height of its glory, fitly enough compared to a robber's fortress on the Rhine — was probably built in the twelfth century, and held by the Tweedies and their retainers for many a year. This is believed to be the scene of Ossian's poem The Tweed Uplands 245 " Calthon and Colmal." The Teutha is the Tweed, and Dunthahno's town, Druinmclzier. Near Drummelzier Kirk, too, at the junction of Tweed and Powsail, the traditional grave of Merhn is pointed out. Bower's " Scotichronicon " narrates the circum stances of his death : " On the same day which he fore- told he met his death ; for certain shepherds of a chief of the country called Meldred set upon him with stones and staves, and, stumbling in his agony, he fell from a high bank of the Tweed, near the town of Drummel- zier (i.e., the ridge of Meldred), upon a sharp stake which the fishers had placed in the waters, and which pierced his body through. He was buried near the spot w^here he expired." "Ah ! well he lov'd the Powsail Burn ; Ah I well he lov'd the Powsail Glen : And there, beside his fountain clear. He sooth'd the frenzy of his brain. " Ah, Merlin ! restless was thy life, As the bold stream whose circles sweep Mid rocky boulders to its close, By thy lone grave, in cahn so deep. " For no one ever lov'd the Tweed, Who was not lov'd by it in turn ; It smil'd in gentle Merlin's face, It soughs in sorrow round his bourn." A prophecy of Thomas the Rhymer — " When Tweed and Pausayl meet at Merlin's grave, England and Scotland shall one monarch have," 246 Scott Country is said to have been literally fulfilled on the very day when James VI. was crowned King of the united realms. Passing down the Tweed, the magnificent Dawyck woods attract attention. Here the first chestnuts and larches were introduced into Britain. The barony was long the seat of the Veitches and the Naesmyths, of which family were Sir James the botanist, a pupil of the great Linnaus, and James the engineer. Some of the most picturesque reaches of the Tweed are by Dawyck and Stobo. Stobo Castle, of bold, Norman architecture, is on a height above the river commanding a' charming range of hill-country, heather -tinted and unusually rich in woodland beauty. Stobo Kirk, founded by The Tweed Uplands 247 St. Kentigcrn, was probably the earliest ecclesiastical structure in Tweeddale. It was the plebania, or mother- church, of the district. From it sprang nearly all the neighbouring parishes, and its priest, as Prebend or Dean both of Clydesdale and Tweeddale, held high rank among the early clergy. The building is a mixture of Saxon and Norman, in three parts — tower, nave, and STOBO KIRK. chancel — and has been the work of different periods. A set of "jougs" hangs by the porch. Sir John Reid, of Stobo, is believed to be the " gud, gentill Stobo " of Dunbar's " Lament for the Makaris." Within the churchyard Robert Hogg, a nephew of the Ettrick Shepherd, was buried in 1834. A lad of undoubted " pairts," he would, had he survived — he was only thirty- two when he died — almost certainly have taken a high 248 Scott Country place in literature. One of the finest ballads in his uncle's '* Mountain Bard " — the " Tweeddale Raide " — is from his pen, full of genuine dramatic ring and verve, and some of his smaller lyrics, cast in a finely poetic mould, are evidence of his genius. When a press reader with the Ballantynes, Robert Hogg came into frequent touch with Scott, and wrote from his dictation large portions of the " Life of Napoleon," and for a time he acted as Lockhart's secretary while conducting the Quarterly Review. (See " Life of Scott," vol. ix.) At Happrew, in the neighbourhood, Wallace is said to have suffered defeat from the English in 1304. The Sheriffmuir Standing Stones near by, at the junction of the Lyne and the Tweed, connnemorate probably some Cymric chief, while the plain itself derives its name from having been the place appointed by the Sheriffs for the famous Tweeddale " Wapinschaws '" a couple of centuries ago. One of the most perfect specimens of a Roman Camp is in the Lyne Valley, not far from the Kirk of Lyne. It has been recently explored, and will well repay a visit. On a height overlooking the Tarth and Lyne stands the massive pile of Drochil — '' that remarkable edifice," as Lock- hart styles it. In July, 1831, Scott was within sight of " Drochil's mouldering walls," and could scarcely be restrained from making some effort to reach it. He was on his way to Douglasdale, the scene of " Castle Dangerous," the last of his romances, and his mind The Tweed Uplands 249 ran naturally on the story of the Douglases. Around Drochil there lingered the memory of a strong scion of the race whose name was writ large on the page of history. This was James, fourth Earl of Morton, the despotic Regent of James VI. 's minority. In the quiet glen of the Lyne he had hoped to pass the remainder of his days, free from the cares, and the snares also, of DROCHIL CASTLE. State. But Drochil, " designed," as Pennecuik has it, " more for a palace than a castle of defence," was destined to remain uncompleted and uninhabited — " A home ne'er roofed, or warmed by hearthfire glow, Or raying forth upon the cheerless night A kindly light set by a human hand." In 1581, for his alleged complicity in the murder of Darnley, Morton perished at the Cross of Edinburgh on 250 Scott Country the " Maiden," the instrument he is said to have him- self introduced to Scotland— a kind of guillotine— still to be seen in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. It was this Morton who pronounced over Knox's grave the memorable words, " Here lies one who never feared the face of man." He was a good Regent in spite of many questionable qualities. Ambition and avarice were his besetting sins, and he was somewhat merciless and cruel. And Drochil remains a memorial both of the pride which ruled, and of the sudden fall which closed a great career— " The symbol of a baffled earthly hope, And of a broken life uncrowned by fame." CHAPTER XIII THE MAKING OF ABBOTSFORD Ninety years ago Abbotsford was taking shape in the brain of the dreamer at Ashestiel. Before him rose the stately mansion and the long line of successors, more or less distinguished, who were to be called by his name. The height of Scott's ambition was to blossom into a Border laird and to become the founder of a distinct branch of the great Border family of Scott. Let us not judge him too harshly, as some have done, if he allowed his dream to carry him away, and built his castle somewhat high, or centred his thoughts too extravagantly on the pride of birth and state. Scott was human, and, like many another, he was uplifted by the phenomenal success which had come to him, and he must have been conscious, too, of vaster powers yet to be disclosed. But it was his besetting temptation, and he paid dearly enough for its mastery of him, even if it brought him a reputation he might not otherwise have won, and a test of heroism such as few men have been called to face. 252 Scott Country- Some time during the boyhood of Scott he saw the site of the future Abbotsford. Driving one day with his father from Selkirk to Melrose, Lockhart tells how the old man suddenly desired the carriage to halt at the foot of an eminence, and said : " We must get out here, Walter, and see a thing quite in your line." His father then conducted him to a rude stone on the edge of an acclivity on the lands of Kaeside, about half a mile from the place where Abbotsford now stands, which marks the spot where " gallant Cessford's heart-blood dear Reeked on dark Elliot's Border spear." Here, on July 25, 1526, had been fought one of those fierce, sanguinary fights between rival clans which were constant!}' occurring within the lawless bounds of the Border. It was, indeed, the last great clan battle on the Borders. The Scotts, with Buccleuch at their head, were pitted against the Douglases and the Kers, led by Archibald, Earl of Angus, and Sir Andrew Ker of Cessford and Ferniherst, chief of the Border Kers. The object of their contention was the person of the boy-King, James V., then in his sixteenth year, who is said to have watched the struggle from a neighbouring knoll. The day fared badly for both sides, but in the end Angus's party triumphed at the expense of many followers, and the Laird of Cessford was himself left dead upon the field. According to Pitscottie, Buccleuch and his friends fied in utter rout from the combat. The Making of Abbotsford 253 chased by Cessford, " who followed so seriously till at the foot of a path he was slain by a spear by one Elliot, a servant to the Laird of Buccleuch. When Cessford was slain the chase ceased, and Angus re- turned again with great merriness and victory, and thanked God that He saved him from that shame, and passed with the King to Melrose, where they remained all that night." Memories of such a fight were sure to cling to spots in the locality. Hence we have Skirmish Hill or Field — corrupted into Skinner's Hill — where the battle was fought, now the site of the Waverley Hydropathic Establishment ; Charge Law, where Buccleuch drew up his men for the onset ; and Turn-Again, where the defeated party rallied and the conquerors turned from the pursuit after Cessford's death. This was the place where Scott and his father rested that summer day in the midst of scenes full of historic interest, and by-and-by the centre of associa- tions even deeper and further-reaching. The surround- ings then, and for years afterwards, were bald and bare in the extreme. Nature had received none of those touches which have resulted in the modern picturesque- ness of the place, yet the naked hills and the sweet stretch of haughland by the Tweed had their own par- ticular charm, and the boy Scott had learned to love Tweedside, and for him then, as through all his later life, there was no land like the Borders. Accordingly we find him, in iSii, negotiating for the 254 Scott Country purchase of the little farm property of Cartle3'hole, on the south bank of the Tweed, some two miles from Galashiels, then a small weaving village, and about three from Melrose. Cartleyhole — in the Melrose Session Records Cartlawhole and Cartlihole — be- longed to Walter Turnbull, parish schoolmaster of Melrose, who had married into the family of its former owner, Dickson, a portioner of the town. In 1797 he disposed of it to Dr. Robert Douglas, minister of Galashiels, who in turn sold it to Scott, on the eve of quitting Ashestiel. The place had been in the doctor's hands for fourteen years, but he had never lived there, and it was in a deplorably neglected con- dition. For a time it seems to have been tenanted and under cultivation, but at Scott's purchase so utterly unattractive was it and tumble-down-looking, that the neighbours had christened it by the more characteristic name of Clarty Hole. The house was poor and small, the steading inadequate, and the drainage defective. Dykes and fences had all but disappeared. Heather grew close to the doorway, and a filthy and evil- smelling duck - pond lay in front, an eyesore and more to all who passed by. There was, in short, nothing attractive about the spot, and a stranger might well have hesitated before driving his bargain. But Scott had gauged its com- pensating elements and the possibilities of the place. With the silver bend of the Tweed immediately in the The Making of Abbotsford 255 foreground, the bold triple height of Eildon behind, and the near presence of so many objects of interest, he felt that something could be made out of it. Melrose and Selkirk were close at hand, and the Ettrick and Yarrow glens. He was interested in the Catrail, the ancient Pictish earthwork which was plainly visible on the rising ground across the river — a bone of con- tention to all the modern archaeologists. A Roman road ran from the Eildons to a ford on the Tweed, by which the Abbots were wont to cross. Thus every- thing to Scott's prophetic eye betokened an ideal spot for the fulfilling of his first day-dream. On May 12, 1811, we find him writing to James Ballantyne : " I have resolved to purchase a piece of ground sufficient for a cottage and a few fields. There are two pieces, either of which would suit me, but both would make a very desirable property indeed, and could be had for between £7,000 and ;£'8,ooo, or either separate for about half the sum. I have serious thoughts of one or both." Three months later one of the pieces passed into his hands for the sum men- tioned — £4,000. The letter to Dr. Douglas acknow- ledging his receipt of the last remittance of the pur- chase-money has been preserved : " I received the dis- charged bill safe, which puts an end to our relation of debtor and creditor : ■ Now the go\vd"s thine, And the land's mine. 256 Scott Country I am glad you have been satisfied with my manner of transacting business, and have equal reason at least to thank 3'ou for your kindly accommodation as to time and manner of payment. In short, I hope our temporary connection forms a happy contradiction to the proverb, ' I lent my money to my friend : I lost my money and my friend.' " The worthy doctor continued on terms of intimacy with his distinguished neigh- bour. They visited each other frequently, and corre- sponded. He was the clergyman to whom Scott addressed "Paul's Letter" on religion in France, and as far back as 1777, when Scott was but in his sixth year, he had been made known to the Galashiels divine through his constant correspondent, Mrs. Cock- burn of Fairnalee, as " the most extraordinary genius of a boy I ever saw." Dr. Douglas has been styled the " Father of Galashiels." When the woollen trade was in its infancy, and the predecessors of the present flourishing and wealthy mill-owners were struggling into existence from the condition of country weavers which they had previously occupied, it was the parish minister who encouraged them in their new enterprise with pecuniary loans and by his strong, sagacious counsel. Many a time when the trade outlook was anything but promising, it was Dr. Douglas who stood at the helm and steered the town safe through the crisis into the serener waters of sound commercial prosperity. The Making of Abbot sford 257 Scott's first purchase of land was about a hundred acres, sixty of which were to be planted, and the remainder kept in pasture and tillage. An ornamental cottage, after the style of an English vicarage, was planned, and, as we shall see, became gradually ab- '^■^ ABBOTSFOKD IN l8l2. sorbed ni the stately pile that grew up around it. " This is the greatest incident which has lately taken place in our domestic concerns, and I assure you we are not a little proud of being greeted as Laird and Lady of Abbotsford. We will give a grand gala when 17 258 Scott Country we take possession of it." So Scott wrote to his brother-in-law in India, and a few days later, in a letter to Joanna Baillie, he says: "My dreams about my cottage go on; as to my scale of dwelling — why, you shall see my plan when I have adjusted it. My present intention is to have only two spare bedrooms, with dressing-rooms, each of which will on a pinch have a couch bed ; but I cannot relinquish my Border principle of accommodating all the cousins and ditni- wastles, who will rather sleep on chairs, and on the floor, and in the hay-loft, than be absent when folks are gathered together." To John Leyden he penned the following epistle three days before the great scholar's sudden decease on the shores of Java : " I have not time to write you much news. The best domestic intelligence is, that the Sheriff of Selkirkshire, his lease of Ashestiel being out, has purchased about one hundred acres, extending along the banks of the Tweed, just above the confluence of the Gala, and about three miles from Melrose. There, saith fame, he designs to bigg himself a bower — sibi d auiicis — and happy will he be when India shall return you to a social meal at his cottage. The place looks at present very like 'poor Scotland's gear.' It consists of a bank and a haugh as poor and bare as Sir John Falstaff's regiment, though I fear, ere you come to see, the verdant screen I am about to spread over its nakedness will have in some degree removed this The Making of Abbotsford 259 reproach. But it has a wild, sohtary air, and com- mands a splendid reach of the Tweed ; and, to sum all in the words of Touchstone, ' It is a poor thing, but mine own.' " Three of his most trusted correspondents during the period of the making of Abbotsford were Joanna Baillie, Daniel Terry, the actor, who had been trained as an architect, and was able to assist in no end of ways, and J. B. S. Morritt of Rokeby, a gentle- man whose friendship Scott greatly valued, one of the most accomplished men, Lockhart says, that ever shared his confidence. To Morritt he sketched the first plans of his house : " I have fixed only tw^o points respecting my intended cottage — one is, that it shall be in my garden, or, rather, kailyard ; the other, that the little drawmg- room shall open into a little conservatory, in which there shall be a fountain. These are articles of taste which I have long since determined upon, but I hope before a stone of my paradise is begun we shall meet and collogue upon it ;" and soon after he writes, as a kind of excuse for beginning " Rokeby," his fourth verse romance : " I want to build my cottage a little better than my limited finances will permit out of my ordinary income." In the summer of 1812, shortly after he had removed to Abbotsford, Lord Byron was one of his correspondents. " I am labour- ing here," he writes to Byron, " to contradict an old proverb, and make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, 17 — 2 260 Scott Country namely, to convert a bare haugh and brae into a comfortable farm." The year 1812 was one of Scott's busiest years. Five days every week until the middle of July he did Court of Session duty at Edinburgh.- Saturday evening saw him at Abbotsford. On Monday he superintended the licking into shape of his new domicile, and again at night he was coaching it to the city. Daring the Court recess he pegged away at " Rokeby " and other literary work under circum- stances that must have been trying enough. " As for the house and the poem," he writes to Morritt, "there are twelve masons hammering at the one, and one poor noddle at the other." He did not then know the luxury of a private " den." A window-corner, curtained off in the one habitable room which served for dining-room, drawing-room, and school-room, was the earliest study of Scott at Abbotsford. There, amid the hammer's incessant fall and the hum of many voices, he plodded on, and did a fair amount of work, varying his occupation at intervals in his favourite pastime of " adorning patches of naked land with trees faduris ncpotihiis nmhram." The letters to Terrv commence in September, 1S12, and show that some Httle progress had been made. " We have got up a good garden-wall, complete stables in the haugh, and the old farmyard enclosed with a wall, with some little picturesque additions in front. The new planta- tions have thriven amazingly well, acorns are coming The Making of Abbotsford 201 up fast, and Tom Purdic is the happiest and most consequential person in the world." To Joanna Baillie he sends this characteristic note in the beginnin^^ of 1813 : " No sooner had I corrected the last sheet of " Rokeby " than I escaped to this Patmos as blithe as bird on tree, and have been ever since most decidedly idle — that is to say, with busy idleness. I have been banking, and securing, and dyking against the river, and planting willows, and aspens, and weeping birches. I have now laid the foundations of a famous back- ground of copse, with pendent trees in front ; and I have only to beg a few years to see how my colours will come out of the canvas;" and in March he adds: " What I shall finally make of this villa- work I don't know, but in the meantime it is very entertaining." In October, 1813, Terry is told that " these are no times for building," but in the following spring, in inviting the Morritts to visit him, he says : "I am arranging this cottage a little more conveniently, to put off the plague and expense of building another year ; and I assure you I expect to spare Mrs. Morritt and you a chamber in the wall, with a dressing-room and everything handsome about 3'ou." In a letter to Terry, dated November, 1814 — the year of " Waverley " — further progress is reported : "I wish you saw Abbotsford, which begins this season to look the whimsical, gay old cabin that we had chalked out ; I have been obliged to relinquish Stark's plan, which was 262 Scott Country greatly too expensive. So I have made the old farm- house my corps dc loo^is, with some outlying places for kitchen, laundry, and two spare bedrooms, which run along the east wall of the farm-court, not without some picturesque effect. A perforated cross, the spoils of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates an advanced door, and looks very well." Than Scott there was no more enthusiastic antiquary. He had the faculty of discover- ing his treasures almost anywhere, and of annexing them as well. Not much was done during the next two years, but in November, 1816, a new set of im- provements was under consideration. Abbotsford was rapidly losing its cottage character, and the " romance " period had begun. A notable addition was then agreed upon, of which Scott writes to Terry : " It will give me a handsome boudoir opening into the little drawing- room, to which it serves as a chapel of ease ; and on the other side to a handsome dining-parlour of twenty- seven feet by eighteen, with three windows to the north, and one to the south, the last to be Gothic and filled with stained glass. Besides these commodities there is a small conservatory or greenhouse, and a study for myself, which we design to fit up with orna- ments from Melrose Abbey." And in the same letter he says : " I expect to get some decorations from the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh, particularly the copestones of the doorway, and a niche or two — one very hand- some indeed ! Better get a niche from the Tolbooth The Making of Abbotsford 2G3 than a niche iji it.* . . . Abbotsford is looking i)rctty at last, and the planting is making some show. I have now several hundred acres thereof." By July, 1817, the foundation of that part of the existing house which extends from the hall westwards to the original court- yard had been laid, and Scott now found a new source of constant occupation in watching the proceedings of his masons. In August he was visited by Washington Irving.! To Joanna Baillie he writes in September: " I get on with my labours here ; my house is about to be roofed in, and a comical concern it is." Some correspondence took place in October between Scott and Terry relative to the architectural features of the new house and its furnishings, and among other things Scott mentions that Sir David Wilkie, who had been his recent guest, " admired the whole as a composition, and that," he adds, "is high authority." In the beginning of 1818 he again writes to Terry : *' I am now anxious to complete Abbotsford. I have reason to be proud of the finishing of my castle, for even of the tower, for which I trembled, not a stone has been shaken by the late terrific gale, which blew a roof clear off in the neighbourhood." It was in October, 1818, * He not only received the stones, but the door itself, which is now in the wall abutting the entrance-porch. t Irving's "Abbotsford" is perhaps the best gossipy account of Scott's home-life at this period, and full of interesting sidelights on Johnny Bower, Laidlaw, and Tom Purdie, "my father's grand vizier," as Sophia Scott styled him. 264 Scott Country that John Gibson Lockhart first saw Abbotsford. His impressions, sympathetically recorded in the " Life," show how absorbing was Scott's interest in the new domain. He could talk of nothing else, and one is hardly surprised at the exuberance of the occasion. In March, 1820, Scott writes to his wife from London, whither he had gone to receive his baronetcy : " I have got a delightful plan for the addition at Abbotsford, which, I think, will make it quite complete." In the winter of 1821 the new building operations were commenced. By the spring of 1822 they were in full swing. " It is worth while to come," he writes to Lord Montagu, " were it but to see what a romance of a house I am making ;" and to Terry, later on : " The new castle is now roofing, and looks superb ; in fact, a little too good for the estate, but we must work the harder to make the land suitable." In October, 1822, he writes to his son Walter: " My new house is quite finished as to masonry, and we are now getting on the roof just in time to face the bad weather." In January, 1823, there is a long letter to Terry about Abbotsford and its treasures. " The shell is com- pletely finished," and Terrj^ is given a pretty free hand in the purchase of furnishings and other arrangements. The August of 1823, when Miss Edgeworth visited Abbotsford, was one of the happiest, says Lockhart, in Scott's life. " Everything about you is exactly what one ought to have had wit enough to dream !" The Making of Abbotsford 2G5 cried the fair novelist as Sir Walter welcomed her to his almost completed halls. l^y Christmas of 1824 Abbotsford was at length finished, and with the New Year's festivities a large and gay party celebrated the " house-warming." In the making of Abbotsford not only was the cottage of 1 812 transformed to the castle of 1824, but the estate itself was continually enlarging. Pos- session of land was more or less a passion with Scott. To acquire the historic and romantic scenes around Abbotsford he paid almost fabulous prices. The first purchase was, as we have seen, the hundred acres of Clarty Hole. In 1813 he made his second purchase, which consisted of the hilly tract stretching from the Roman road near Turn-Again towards Cauldshiels Loch — "a then desolate and naked mountain mere." To have this at one end of his property as a contrast to the Tweed at the other "was a prospect for which hardly any sacrifice would have appeared too much." In 1815 Kaeside— Laidlaw's home — passed into his hands, and more than doubled the domain.* By 1816 the land area had increased to about 1,000 acres. In 1817 he paid £10,000 for Toftfield, altering the name to Huntlyburn from its supposed association with the * Laidlaw's old home on the heights between Abbotsford and Melrose is much enlarged since his day. For long, the house, garden, and some other objects were retained with almost religious veneration as Laidlaw left them, but the change is now most com- plete. 2G6 Scott Country " Huntlee Bankis " of True Thomas's liaison with the Queen of Faery,* and in the excellent new house JOHN GIBSON LOCKHAKT. he settled his friend Sir Adam Ferguson — the original "Captain Clutterbuck " — and his sisters. It was in * The " Huntlee Bankis " of the old romance lies about half a mile to the west of the Eildon Tree Stone, and on the slope of the hill. Scott was entirely mistaken in identifying the locality with a portion of his estate. The wild and picturesque ravine of " Dick's Cleuch," and the burn brattling on its way from Cauldshiels, became the " Rhymer's Glen," a dell of remarkable beauty, but its real associations are all with the modern Seer of Tweedside. The Making of Abbotsford 207 the autumn of this year, while batthn<( with languor and a touch of melanchol}-, that Scott wrote the follow- ing lines, perhaps the most pathetically poetic he ever penned. From the height overhanging Cauldshiels he could view a wide stretch of country and his own idolized acres lying at his feet. " The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill, In Ettrick's vale, is sinking sweet ; . The westland wind is hush and still — The lake lies sleeping at my feet. Yet not the landscape to mine eye Bears those bright hues that once it bore Though evening with her richest dye Flames o'er the hills of Ettrick's shore. " With listless look along the plain I see Tweed's silver current glide, And coldly mark the holy fane Of Melrose rise in ruin'd pride. The quiet lake, the balmy air, The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree- Are they still such as once they were. Or is the dreary change in me ? "Alas I the warp'd and broken board. How can it bear the painter's dye ! The harp of strain'd and tuneless chord. How to the minstrel's skill reply ! To aching eyes each landscape lowers, To feverish pulse each gale blows chill. And Araby's or Eden's bowers Were barren as this moorland hill." In 1820 the estate was rounded off by the purchase of Burnfoot, a little further down the "runnel," whose name was changed to Chiefswood. Here in 1821 268 Scott Country Lockhart brought his bride, Sophia Scott, where their happiest married years were spent. Sir Walter was a constant visitor. No place, next to his own house, so attracted him. Many a time he was glad to escape from the " nauseous stir" of Abbotsford to his daughter's quiet and picturesque cottage-home. Large portions of the " Pirate" were penned at Chiefswood, CHIEFSWOOD. and here also Lockhart's own novels were written. Hither came Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, \\'hen a youth of twenty, to enlist Lockhart's services for the Representative, a London daily which Murray the publisher proposed to start. Lockhart, however, declined the post, but was offered instead the editor- ship of the Quarterly Revicic, which he accepted, and removed to London. Chiefswood was then occupied The Making of Abbotsford 269 by Captain Thomas Hamilton, brother of Sir WiUiam, the celebrated metaphysician. His dashing novel of military life and adventure, " Cyril Thornton," was practically all written at Chiefswood, as also was his " Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns." " We could DARNICK. scarce have had more agreeable neighbours," said Scott, in speaking of the Haiiiiltons. There \Nas one other spot of interest that Scott longed to call his own* ■■■■ FaldonsidL", close to Abbotsford, was iiuu:li in Scott's eye also with a view to purchase. The place belonj^cd in i 566 to Andrew Ker, one of the murderers of Rizzio, and a member of the band which attacked Mary and Bothwell at Borthwiek in J une, 1 567. In 1574 Ker married Maryarct Stewart, daughter of Lord Ochiltree, and widow of John Knox, the Reformer. 270 Scott Country — Darnick Tower, bordering upon Abbotsford. A field or two would have sufficed, but the proprietor was un- willing to part with his patrimon}-. Scott's suggestion rather spurred him to restore the ancient peel-house The Making of Abbotsford 271 as a retreat for his own declining days. It is now in excellent preservation, packed from floor to ceiling with relics of the olden time. By the villagers of Darnick Scott was dubbed " the Duke," and no one held a larger place in their hearts. But in November, 1825, there is the following entry in Scott's Diary: "Abbotsford is all I can make it, so I resolve on no more building and no purchases of land till times are quite safe." Times were indeed far from safe. A reverse of circumstances seemed inevitable. The creation of Abbotsford, grand as the ideal may have been, and full of excitement as it undoubtedly was, was the strongest factor, so far as Scott was concerned, in the unsafeness of the situation that faced him, and it proved the key to his future. He was about to discover how much it had been his " Delilah." And so Abbotsford continued unchanged for the remaining seven years of his life. Until 1853, when Mr, Hope-Scott, husband of Lockhart's daughter, came into possession, nothing was done for the place, and there were signs of sad neglect. An eminent and wealthy Parliamentary barrister, anxious to make Abbotsford his principal summer residence, he spent large sums on additions and improvements. The Hope-Scott extension, in light freestone, is easily recog- nisable in contrast to the darker hue of Sir Walter's house, which was built of native blue whin. The year 1825 ^^Y be styled the high-water mark in the splendour of Abbotsford. The " romance in stone 272 Scott Country and lime " was seldom without its quota of visitors. Every day brought a fresh accession. It was often, as Scott said, " like a cried fair." Lady Scott's wits and patience were sorely tried. To her it was the " hotel The Making of Abbotsford 273 widout de pay." Faed's picture of " Scott and his Friends" — a purely imaginary piece— may be taken as embodying in a degree the kind of gatherings at this period. Sir Walter is reading the manusciipt of a new novel. Henry Mackenzie, the " Man of Feeling," to whom he dedicated " Waver- ley," occupies the place of honour to the right of Scott, and the Ettrick Shepherd is seated on his left. Christopher North's pordy presence leans over the back of a chair. Next to him, the poet Crabbe is gazing intently at Scott. Then come Lockhart, Words- worth, and Jeffrey. Sir Adam Ferguson, cross-legged, immedi- ately faces Scott, and behind him Moore and Campbell sit oppo- site each otlier. At the end of the table are the printers Constable and Ballantyne, and at their back, standing, the painters Allan and Wilkie. George Thomson is seated on the extreme left, while Sir Humphry Davy is examining a sword-hilt. It would be impossible to estimate the number of visitors and callers at Abbotsford, of all ranks and pro- fessions—princes of the blood royal, "periwigged dowagers," "underbred foreigners," "poverty-stricken poetasters," and hundreds who insisted from the slightest pretext on an interview with Scott. Apart from the great presiding genius, the house was unique in every respect. History looked out from its walls, and the interior was a veritable museum of antiquarian wealth. Scott was an inveterate relic-hunter, and a generally successful searcher. Everything has been left very much as in Sir Walter's lifetime, and for the modern visitor there is the rarest possible treat. A short account may not be out of place, and it will be as well, while not attempting the superfluous in i8 274 Scott Country enumerating their countless relics and treasures, to describe the apartments open to the public in the order in which they are usually shown, with the more remarkable objects pointed out : A heterogeneous combination of the quaint and curious in sculptured stone and pious inscription placed at random all round iiM . ^>^y^ MM ■' i "■■ 1 ] n m rrjfi:: ABBOTSFORD, SOUTH FRONT the building in the true revelry of Gothic exuberance makes up the exterior of what Ruskin styled "perhaps the most incongruous pile that gentlemanly modernism ever designed." Yet notwith- standing many oddities, the general effect is pleasing and surpris- ing. Abbotsford was reared on no set plan, but with the desire to reproduce some of those features of ancient Scottish architecture which Scott most venerated. It is at once a monument of the high historical imagination from which sprang his more enduring memorial, and of the over-zeal which may be lavished, with very The Making of Abbotsford 275 disastrous results, on the mere "pomp and circumstance of time " —the all-absorbing passion THE STUDY. "To call this wooded patch of earth his own, And rear the pile of ill-assorted stone. And play the grand old feudal lord again." l8— 2 276 Scott Country Abbotsford proper is enclosed by an embattled wall with great turreted gateway bearing the "jougs " of Thrieve Castle. The projecting entrance-porch was copied from Linlithgow Palace. Near by are the grave and marble effigy of Maida, Scott's favourite deerhound, and the fountain originally on the Cross of Edinburgh, which is said to have flowed with wine on the occasion of royal visits to the city. Inscriptions from all sources have been woven into the walls. Above the Tolbooth door are the words : THE LIBRARY " The Lord of armies is my protector : Blissit ar they that trust in the Lord." Over the Library window is the lintel from the Common Hall of the old Edinburgh College, with a quotation from Seneca ; and another inscription runs : " By Night by day Remember ay the goodness of ye Lord : And thank His name whos glorious fam is spred Throughout ye world." As a rule — and there really ought to be some alteration— visitors are first admitted into what is surely the sancttan sanctorum The Making of Abbotsford 277 at Abbotsford — the study. It remains very much as Scott left it, the reference books being in the same position. A small writing desk from the wood of the Spanish Armada, a plain arm- 'tl^A.^^^^^ q CHANTREV BUST OF SCOTT chair covered in black leather, the Wallace chair of Robroyston wood, portraits of Claverhouse, Queen Elizabeth, Rob Roy, and 278 Scott Country Stothard's " Canterbury Pilgrims ■'" are the chief objects of interest. A small turret-room—" Speak-a-Bit" (see p. 91) — contains the bronze cast of Scott's head taken after death, and a private stair- case connects with the bedrooms. Adjoining is the Library, the largest apartment in the house. The richly carved ceiling of Jamaica cedar is modelled from Melrose and Roslin. Twenty thousand volumes line the walls. Here are presents from George I\'., the Pope, Constable, and others. Napoleon's blotting-book and pen-tray, taken from his carriage after Waterloo ; Queen Mary's seal, and a piece of her dress ; Prince Charlie's quaigh, and a lock of his hair ; Rob Roy's purse; Helen MacGregor's brooch, and Flora Macdonald's pocket- book ; locks of Nelson's and Wellington's hair ; Burns's tumbler , a number of miniatures, including Scott at the age of six (see p. 23), and Lady Scott when Miss Carpenter ; and many other curios are contained within a glass table by the bow-window. Over the fireplace is Allan's painting of the second Sir Walter Scott in the uniform of the 15th Hussars, who died at sea in 1847, and with whom perished the hope of the family. The famous Chantrey bust of Scott, of which Lockhart said that it "alone pre- serves for posterity the cast of expression most fondly remembered by all who mingled in his domestic circle," was placed in its present niche by young Sir Walter the day of his father's funeral. Next we pass to the Drawing loom, a large and lofty chamber, rich in its furniture and walls. The paintings are both numerous and valuable, and include the full length Raeburn portrait of Scott, Saxon's portrait of Lady Scott, Scott's mother by Watson, water- colour sketches of Ann and Sophia Scott in peasa.)t attire, and a magnificent presentation portrait of the present proprietrix of Abbotsford — the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott, great-granddaughter of Sir Walter. Portraits of Hogarth, Dryden, Cromwell, Nell Gwynne, Queen Mary immediately after decapitation, and James \'l., with Thomson of Duddingston's Fast Castle, and Bennet's Jed- burgh, are the main ornaments of a singularly fascinating apart- ment. The Armoury, intersecting the house, and forming a kind of The Making of Abbotsford 279 ante-room to the dining and drawing rooms, is a treasure-house of the first order— the most splendid private collection in the world. Weapons and curios of every conceivable character, from every country, and with the most \aried historical associations, are LADV SCOTT. ranged round the walls. Here are Rob Roy's gun, broadsword, dirk, sporran, and skene dhu ; Montrose's sword, given to the great Marquis by Charles I. ; Claverhouse's and Napoleon's pistols; the Tyrolese patriot Speckbacker's ritle ; James \'I.'s 280 Scott Country hunting-flask ; Prince Charlie's hunting-knives ; a set of thumbi- kins ; the keys of Loch Leven Castle ; Sir Walter's own gun, sword, and sabre worn by him when a yeoman in the Edinburgh Light Dragoons ; with battle-axes, shields, spear-heads, daggers, spurs, pistols, and guns galore. The Armoury paintings consist chiefly of Scott's servants and friends— John Swanston, his game- keeper, Peter Mathieson, Tum Purdie, John Ballantyne, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, Professor Wilson, the Scotts of Raeburn, and Sir Walter himself. Several drawings by Kirkpatrick Sharpe adorn the walls. Three carvings by Andrew Currie, and Greenshields's pretty statuette of Scott, are worthy of notice. In this order of going round, the Entrance-hall comes last— a spacious apartment panelled with dark oak from Dunfermline, and roofed with pointed arches of the same material. A sort of rich and red twilight, even at^noonday, from the emblazoned " Bel- lenden windows," pervades the place, which is literally laden with relics and trophies. The cornice displays a double line of escutcheons, with the heraldic bearings of the Scotts, Kers, Ellios, Douglases, Maxwells, and other Border families, and the insciip- tion in black letter : llusc be llu Coat 3lnuouvis of uc (Claunis ant) men of name qnlvA kecpit the Scottish ^larches in i)c bans of iuilti. %\\tv toeve loovthic in thaiv tnmc anb in thair befens (Gob them bcfenbcb. The arms of Scott's own ancestors occupy sixteen shields running down the centre of the roof. Three of these he was unable to trace out, and filled up the blanks with blue clouds and the motto : jYox- — alta—preinit-"' Oblivion has covered them." The floor is a mosaic of black-and-white Hebridean marble. Some of the more conspicuous objects in the Hall are Sir John Cheney's massive armour suit— the biggest man who fought at Bosworth Field- grasping a huge two handed sword ; the keys of the Edinburgh Tolbooth; the lock of Selkirk Jail ; a Jeddart axe; the Hermitage touting-horn ; Stow burgess-hat ; relics from Waterloo, Culloden, and Roxburgh; the mistletoe-chest where Ginevra lay; Marie Antoinette's clock ; Archbishop Sharpe's grate ; Ralph Erskine's pulpit, which Scott turned into a small wine-press ; canopies The Making of Abbotsford 281 [William Gibli. ENTRANCE HALL, ABBOTSFORD. copied from Melrose ; a bust of Wordsworth ; and the last suit of clothes worn by Sir Walter — drab trousers, striped waistcoat, dark- green coat with white metal buttons, and fawn beaver hat. 282 Scott Country The Dining-room — "his own great parlour" — is not open to the public. " It was the first room of any pretensions that he built at Abbotsford, and much care was expended on its design and decoration." He adorned the walls with portraits of his ancestors, and, says Lockhart, " he seemed never to weary of perusing them." It was in this room that the final tragedy was played out on that balmy autumn afternoon of 1832 — "a beautiful day, so warm that every window was wide open, and so perfectly still that the sound of all others most delicious to his ear — the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles — was distinctly audible as we knelt around the bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes." Since Scott died, hundreds of thousands have paid their devotions at this Mecca of the Borderland, and, while there might be improvements in the method of " doing " Abbotsford — its place as a museum and show-house less emphasized — it must always have a close personal fascination for all to whom the story of its maker has an appeal at once saddening and inspiring. CHAPTER XIV M E L K O S E M E M OKIES Melrose has the chief claim to be considered the capital of the Scott Countn-. The more personal shrines of Sir Walter are in the parish : Abbotsford, the idol of his affections and his home for many years ; Chiefswood, possessing the next place in his heart ; the Abbey, the most splendid ruin in Scotland, beloved and venerated for its own sake, and for him whose genius has begirt it with undimmed glory. The per- sonality of Scott is seen most of all about Melrose, its main attraction seventy years since, his influence is still an increasing rather than a dnninishing factor in the fortunes of the district. The modern town may be said to be wholly his making. No other writer has been the means of creating so many favourite Scottish haunts, and the statement that "Scott restored Scotland " is full of significance. Scott abides the most potent force in the world of letters. The Htera- ture that has gathered around him is legion, while his own work has never lost caste or been reduced 284 Scott Country Melrose Memories 285 to any common level. For grace of touch, pureness of sentiment, inherent healthiness, and power of pro- ducing the most genuine pleasure, the romances of Scott are likely to remain unrivalled. " Scott shall ne'er oblivion know ; While old Scotland lasts, his name. Fitly framed for mutual fame, Shall with hers still co-exist, First in Honour's lofty list : Till his land and race are not. Glory be to Walter Scott !" One is not long in Melrose ere its charm as the Mecca of the Scottish Border is disco^•ered. The name seems to be derived from the Celtic maol-ros, "the open or naked headland." For the etymology we must go further down the Tweed some two and a half miles, to Old Melrose, as the spot is still known. Here the river makes probably the most remarkable, and certainly the most beautiful, bend in all its seaward race. From Leaderfoot and Ravenswood, round the richly -wooded braes of Gladswood and the bold, scraggy bluff of Bemersyde, it takes an almost circular sweep, more than the ordinary horse-shoe loop. When the surrounding country was for the most part covered with forest, the promontory of Old Melrose, it is said, presented the pleasing and unusual appearance of an open surface clothed with green turf and broom. There were few choicer sites for the establishment of a great monastic institution. The founding of the 286 Scott Country- Abbey further up the Tweed appears strange when contrasted with the environment of the ancient house and its singularly hallowed associations. Dorothy Wordsworth's wish, expressed to Scott in 1803, finds echo in most hearts : " We wished we could have brought the ruins of Melrose to this spot," On this OLD MELROSE AND THE EILDONS FROM BEMERSVDE HILL— SCOTT S FAVOURITE VIEW. queenly situation the original monastery of Melrose was erected early in the seventh century. It was at first a humble enough structure, with walls of hewn oak and roof of reeds, A stone edifice succeeded this, and a strong rampart, stretching across the narrowest part of the pfjninsula, defended the whole place. But nothing is left to tell where it stood ; silence reigns Melrose Memories 287 by " the beautiful bend." Old Melrose is a forsaken shrine ; a few place-names preserve the memory of its former sanctity in the Monk's Ford and the Holy Wheel, the Chapel Knowe and the Girth-Gate. The finest prospect is, of course, from the opposite highway. This was Scott's favourite view on the Tweed. There his " yett " is still seen, and, as was his wont, we, too, may lean over it and revel in the gorgeous panorama outspread in front of us. Elihu Burritt stood here one day, and has described it as " the most magnificent view I ever saw in Scotland, excepting, perhaps, the one from Stirling Castle only for the feature which the Forth supplies." The eye takes in the familiar landmarks : the Cheviots, Ruberslaw, the Dunion, the Gala Water hills, and Eildon in the foreground, monarch of the scene. "Above the mist, the sun has kissed Our Eildons, one yet three ; The triplet smiles, like glittering isles Set in a silver sea." The "bend" is best seen from here with the present house of Old Melrose nesthng in its greenwood bower. How many historic spots are in the neighbourhood ! Sandyknowe is behind us only a few miles. On our right rises the Black Hill of Earlston, but red enough from this particular point. At its foot lies cosy Cowden- knowes, " where Homes had ance commanding," and Redpath, a decaying place, once a sweet old-time 288 Scott Country hamlet— a Border " Thrums," with the merry dick- clack of a score of looms in its smiling cottages. Gladswood, Drygrange, Raven swood— poetic names— WALLACE. have each the most charming nook "where Tweed her silent way majestic holds." There, close at hand, peeping up among its ancestral trees, the bartizans of Bemersyde remind us of Scott's remark to Washington Melrose Memories '289 Irving: "There seemed to him ahnost a wizard spell hanginp^ over it in consequence of the prophecy of Thomas the Rhymer, in which in iiis youn^^ days he most potently believed." And further over, on the brow of a precipitous bank facing a broad expanse of Tweed, is the huge red figure of Wallace, " with the glare of a Homeric demi-god," and in his hand the " brand which none but he can wield " — a veritable Excalibur — as tall as himself.* Dryburgh is not far distant, and Mertoun, where Scott spent many happy days at the seat of his kinsman, and wrote the " Eve of St. John " and the Introduction to Canto vi. of " Marmion," with its delightful picture of Christmas on Tweedside. Old Melrose, then, is abundant in natural beauty, and surrounded with memories the most romantic. * "Wallace ' was unveiled by Lord Buchan on September 22, 1814, the anniversary of Stirling Bridge. The monument is 22^ feet high, and was designed by Smith of Darnick, from a supposed authentic portrait. A statue of Burns was the original intention, but on seeing the massive sandstone block fresh from the quarry the eccentric Eail changed his mind, and set up instead a memorial to the "great patriot hero, ill-requited chief." An urn in front carries the following lines : " The peerless knight of Ellerslie Who wav'd on Ayr's romantic shore The beamy torch of liberty, And roaming round from sea to sea, From glade obscure or gloomy rock His bold compatriots called to free The realm from Edward's iron yoke." 19 290 Scott Country And in those distant days it must have been a meet spot for a rehgious retreat and saintly meditation. Colonized from Lindisfarne, Aidan's disciple Eata, " a man much revered and meek," was its first Abbot After him were Boisil, who gave his name to the " AND MERTOUN S HALLS ARE FAIR E EX NOW, WHEN NOT A LEAF IS ON THE BOUGH " neighbouring St. Boswells, and Cuthbert, the shepherd of Leaderside, by-and-by the most beloved figure in the history of English monasticism. Cuthbert died in his cell at Lindisfarne in 687, and during the Danish incursion^; his followers bore from shrine to shrine the Melrose Memories 291 uncorrupted body of their Bishop, among its numerous resting-places being the saint's home-sanctuary by the Tweed. From hence, according to the oft-told tradition embodied in " Marmion," it floated down the river in a stone coffin as far as Tillmouth, where it stopped of its own accord. " O'er northern mountain, marsh, and moor, From sea to sea, from shore to shore, Seven years Saint Cuthhert's corpse they bore. They rested then in fair Mehose ; But though, al.ve, he loved it well, Not there his relics might repose ; For, wondrous tale to tell ! In his stone-coffin forth he rides, A ponderous bark for river tides, Yet light as gossamer it glides Downward to Tillmouth cell." Nor would the sacred bones have peace in other places tried by the weary monks until " after many wanderings past. He chose his lordly seat at last, Where his Cathedral, huge and vast, Looks down upon the Wear ; There, deep in Durham's Gothic shade, His relics are in secret laid." But Old Melrose fell on evil days. Partly destroyed in 839 during the Scoto-Saxon wars, and afterwards rebuilt, it was again a desolate place in 1050, when the Culdee Church was rapidly losing ground. A few monks sought out its seclusion, among them the cele- brated Turgot, Bishop of St. Andrews, and Confessor 19 — 2 292 Scott Country of the saint-Queen Margaret, " the Pearl of Scotland "; but they were not able to raise it above the status of a mere chaplainry dedicated to St. Cuthbert and endowed with the privilege of sanctuary. It continued for long, however, as a favourite pilgrim resort, and an ascetic of the thirteenth century added much to its fame.* From the middle of the twelfth century the new Abbey of Melrose overshadowed in wealth and power the ancient mother-house. The enthusiasm of the Sair Sanct laid hold of the Scottish heart till the second Melrose became, perhaps, the most famous establish- ment in the kingdom. Built between 1136 and 1146, dedicated to the Virgin, and constantly enriched by Crown gifts and private benefactions, it was tenanted by a colony of Cistercian monks from Rievalle in Yorkshire, the pioneers of their order in Scotland. Their religion was of a purely passive type. They were more concerned with the cultivation of the soil than the cure of souls, and their settlements were usually in some quiet sequestered valley by the banks of a meandering stream. Part of their time was de- * Old Melrose had a famous visionary ascetic in the seventh century— Drythelme, a Scottish Dante— who believed that he had actually passed a whole night in the abode of the dead. He anticipated, as he said, the horrors of purgatory, which he had witnessed, by the most rigorous penance and self-torture, immersing himself daily in the Tweed, even in the depth of winter, without undressing or afterwards removing his wet gar- ments. Melrose Memories 293 voted to learning, and in the transcribing of books and manuscripts they took keen dehght. With a real love for Art, their churches were embellished after the most ornate designs. Nor did they neglect the stern Bene- dictine rules which bound them by the most solemn vows. Still, as Captain Clutterbuck said, they had ''an easy life of it," and as the old rhyming taunt puts it : "The monks of Melrose made fat kail On Fridays when they fasted, Nor wanted they gude beef and ale, So lang's their neighbours' lasted." But the times were troublous and uncertain. A Damocles sword hung over the Border Abbeys in the Southron's frequent menace. Time and again the hard and graceless hand of the destroyer came against them. Rent and scarred by the " auld enemy "—the shrines of peace changed into very charnel-houses— their experience was singularly chequered. They had, at the best, a short-lived glory. Four hundred years saw them reared, and at the height of their power, and ruined. From 1146 to 1545 is a period comparatively brief in the history of a great religious house like Mel- rose. David I., the founder, died in 1153, and was succeeded by his grandson, Malcolm, the smooth- skinned " Maiden," a zealous supporter of Melrose. After him came William the Lion, during whose long reign the Abbey made substantial progress. Alex- 294 Scott Country ander II. was another kingly benefactor. Dying in 1249 " on lone Kerrera's Isle," his embalmed body was brought to "fair Melrose" for burial near the High Altar, where his tombstone is still seen. Alex- ander III.'s reign marked an epoch of abounding peace and prosperity in the religious and social life of the nation. But " When Alexander our King was dede That Scotland led in luve and le," the political horizon grew black enough. In the War of Independence the Abbey was spared while Edward I. lived, by the fealty of its Abbot to the English Crown. But the second Edward wreaked desperate vengeance upon it in 1322. Scarcely a vestige of the original fabric is to be found. It is to this calamity that we owe the supreme splendour of the new shrine. Mainly through the munificence of Robert the Bruce, by the grant of a sum equal to ^^50,000 in modern money, the Abbey was rebuilt in 1326 " in the most magnificent style of the period." In 1384 it was again burned by Richard II., and again restored. In 1544 Evers and Latoun, previous to Ancrum Moor, " where Scott and Douglas led the Border spears," mutilated the tombs of the heroic Douglases at Melrose, and in the next year Hertford completed the work of destruction. At the Reformation it was finally dismantled, and for long afterwards the ruin was used as a quarry by the towns- Melrose Memories 295 people. The statues were demolished in 1649, and up to 1810 the nave was the parish church, Melrose is now in the hands of the Buccleuch family, " who have taken every measure to preserve it, without imparting a suggestion of restoration or of artiticial support." Nor could it be in safer keeping. 1^^^^ '1 IPS 1 ' MELROSE AI A detailed description is here impossible. As the grandest ecclesiastical ruin in the country, " second to few — very few — in delicacy of design and expression, and in gracefulness of line and composition," it must be seen to be understood. Every window, arch, cloister, corbel, keystone, doorhead and buttress of this exquisite example of medieval Gothic is a study in 296 Scott Country itself— all elaborately car\-ed, yet no two alike. The sculpture is unequalled both in symmetry and variety, embracing some of the loveliest specimens of floral tracery and the most quaint and grotesque representa- tions imaginable. "A favourite and unique form of decoration employed on the capitals of many of the columns is the leaf of the Scotch kail. High altar, choir, transepts and nave, chapels and cloisters, and great tower looked at from the ground or the roof are an inexhaust- ible study of fine grouping, chaste design and elegant decoration, so rich, so prodigally rich, that one burns with indignation that any portion of so wonderful an edifice should have been bruised or destroyed. How delicate those clustered columns, those fairy arches, those slender mullioned windows and varied tracery ! How unique that Crown of Thorns window on the north, and on the south wall that doorway and window, with its splendid wheel of seven compartments ! ''AH must be seen and lingered with to be fully enjoyed. The hidden corner, no less than the sunlit, must be studied till all the ornaments are known and loved. Stars, shells, flowers and plants, thistles, roses, and fleurs-de-lys are here in endless variety. How perfect, too, is the workmanship ; no slipshod, no shoddy, no fine carving wasted on poor stone, but all the stones laid in as found in the quarries, and hence a minimum of decay. The mouldings, the carvings, and all the ornaments left are remarkably sharp, and many as good as if just finished, even to the minute veins of leaves and the tender edges of flowers and fruits. Indeed, but for the relentless hand and cruel fire of warrior and conqueror, but for the mistaken zeal of ignorant reformers, and the heartless indifference of gentry and peasantry who made the grand pile their quarry, it must have remained to us this day a perfect whole, for Time alone seems ta hurt it but little. What a monument it would then have been to us of all the riches and glories of a perfected Gothic, an en- chanted temple of history and the splendours of the Middle Ages."* * D. Y. Cameron in the Artist, Melrose Memories 297 No one knew the Abbey better or bore a truer regard towards it than Scott, and its architecture is nowhere more faithfully described than in the magnificent setting of the *' Lay." As a ruin it touched him with a deeper pathos, and quickened his historical imagination more than the other Tweedside fanes. He was familiar with every nook and corner. Nothing escaped him, and how he has reproduced for us its decayed greatness, and recalled to the living sentient present the long- dead tenants of its clay! Melrose, in the " Lay," has been restored and repeopled by a mightier Wizard than he who sleeps under its fretted canop}-. Another Book of Might, subtler far than that snatched from the dead man's hand by William of Deloraine, has enthralled the world. Seldom has there been a poem weirder with ghostly gloom, fuller of quick-breathing action, or whose verses rattle in their ranks with keener pictorial effect. " Now, slow and faint, he led the way, Where, cloistered round, the garden lay ; The pillar'd arches were over their head, And beneath their feet were the bones of the dead. Spreading herbs, and flowerets bright, Glisten'd with the dew of night ; Nor herb, nor floweret, glisten'd there, But was carved in the cloister-arches as fair. ***** By a steel-clenched postern door. They enter'd now the chancel tall ; J The darken'd roof rose high aloof On pillapsfloftyr,^ aia^^l^ht^and smal / "!> ' OF TH' ( UNIVERSITY 298 Scott Country The keystone, that locked each ribbed aisle, Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quatre-feuille ; The corbels were carved grotesque and grim, And the pillars, with cluster'd shafts so trim, With base and with capital flourish'd around, Scem'd bundles of lances which garlands had bound. * * * * * The moon on the east oriel shone Through slender shafts of shapely stone, By foliaged tracery combined ; Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand, 'Twixt poplars straight, the osier wand In many a freakish knot had twined ; Then framed a spell, when the work was done, And changed the willow-wreaths to stone." The best view is from the south-east corner of the churchyard, where the coup d\cil is very striking. But " If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight ; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray. When the broken arches are l)Iack in night, And each shafted oriel glimmers white, When the cold light's uncertain shower Streams on the ruined central tower ; When buttress and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory ; When silver edges the imagery. And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die ; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man"s grave, Then go — but go alone the while — Then view St. David's ruined pile ; And, home returning, soothly swear Was never scene so sad and fair I"' Melrose Memories 299 There, by the High Altar, He the throbless heart of the Bruce — "of Bannockburn the prowess never pales"; the brave Earl Douglas, hero of Chevy Chase — " a Douglas dead, his name hath won the field "; the dark Knight of Liddesdale ; the English commanders at Ancrum Moor — " The ravaged Abbey rung the funeral knell, When fierce Latoun and savage Evers fell ;" and Michael Scott — ■ " Buried on St. Michael's night, When the bell toU'd one, and the moon was bright, Whose chamber was dug among the dead, When the floor of the chancel was stained red." And many another — monarch and monk, warrior and priest, Border laird and lady, " the young, the glad, the old, the sad " — rest here where solemn silence covers all. " Deserted Melrose ! oft, with holy dread, I trace thy ruins mouldering o'er the dead ; While, as the fragments fall, wild fancy hears The solemn steps of old departed years, When beamed young Science in these cells forlorn, Beauteous and lonely as the star of morn. Where gorgeous panes a rainbow-lustre threw. The rank, green grass is cobwebbed o'er with dew ; Where pealtng organs, through the pillared fane. Swelled, clear to heaven, devotion's sweetest strain, The bird of midnight hoots with dreary tone. And sullen echoes through the cloisters moan." 300 Scott Country An interesting study may be made of the inscriptions and epitaphs around the walls of the Abbey, and of " The mouldering shields, Scutcheons of honour or pretence, Quarter'd in old armorial sort. Remains of rude magnificence." John Murdo, or Morow, presumably the Master- mason of Melrose and other edifices, is thus com- memorated : JOHN MOROW : SUM TVME : CALLIT : WAS : I : AND BORN : IN PARYSEE : CERTAINLY : AND HAD : IN : KEPPING ALL : MASON : WORK : OF : SANTAN : DRUYS : YE : HYE : KYRK : OF : GLASGU : MELROS : AND : PASLEY : OF : NYDDYSDAYLL : AND : OF : GALWAY : I : PRAY : TO : GOD : and : mary : BAITH : AND : SWEET : ST : JOHN : KEEP : THIS : HALY : KIRK : FRAE : SKAITH :* " Hic Jacet Johanna d. Ross " marks the tomb by the sacristy door of Alexander II. 's Queen. " Heir lyis THE Race of ye Hovs of Zair," touches many hearts with its simple pathos. Pious invocations and mottoes meet the eye all over the ruin, and the chapels contain the dust of generations of ancient Border families — the Pringles of Whytbank and Galashiels, Scotts of Gala, * Morow is claimed as the first Master of St. John's Lodge of Freemasons, Melrose, held to be the oldest in Scotland. The festival of St. John — December 27 — is observed with great eclat, when the Abbey is the scene of a somewhat picturesque celebra- tion by torchlight. Melrose Memories 301 Bostons of Gattonside, Krrs of l\i]ipila\v and Yair, otc. One of the fmest poetical inscrii)ti()ns in ci)itaj)liian literature will be seen in the churchyard : " The earth goeth on the earth Glist'ring Hke gold ; The earth goeth to the earth Sooner than it wold ; The earth builds on the earth Castles and towers ; The earth says to the earth, All shall be ours." Tom Purdie's grave, with the tombstone erected by Scottr (see p. i68), is at the east end of the yard ; and close under the Abbey windows, waiting for the breaking light of morn, rests all that is mortal of the Christian philosopher Sir David Brewster. " The Lord is my Light " are the words on the sarcophagus — a text chosen by the great master of optics himself. Few men have been more held in honour for eminent scholarship and a pre-eminently saintly career. His last words were, " I shall see Jesus who created all things ; Jesus who made the worlds : I shall see Him as He is, and that will be grand." The Cross of Melrose in the centre of the town, crowned by the figure of a unicorn and the arms of Scotland, and bearing the date of restoration, 1642, is probably coeval with the Abbey. Many spots of interest not yet specially mentioned lie around Melrose. The heart of a widely historic region, abundant in 802 Scott Country ^IR DAVID BREWSTER S TOMB. Melrose Memories 303 natural beauty, a delightful health-resort, and shrining above all, next to Shakespeare, the most notable name in British literature, Melrose is, undoubtedly, the most popular tourist headquarters in Scotland. The visitor may make his way hence tf) all points of the Border MELROSE CROSS. compass, sure of touching some of the most storied ground in the kingdom. There are the " green Eildon Hills" always in vision. Wizard - cleft, and legend- haunted, " for weirdly deeds renowned, With ancient camp of Roman crowned." 304 Scott Country " It is impossible to live in the Border country and not to come under the influence of the three bleak hills. Through the long years they have sat, like old kings who never die, while Britons and Romans, Picts and Scots, English and Scottish, Cavaliers and Roundheads, Covenanters and King's men, have shed their blood in mortal fight under their shadow. They have watched the wild moorland grow into fertile plains. They have seen the cave - man pass through many stages and arrive at the sturdy peasant who now makes red scars round their feet with his plough. They have lived so long that few besides the professed geologist remember that they are of volcanic origin, and that the shingle on their sides was once boiling lava. And always, to the end of time, and at the ends of the earth, wherever a true Borderer is found, they must live in his heart for ever." Scott and Wordsworth have sung of them, and sung with love in their hearts. Hogg describes the view from their summit as "an amphitheatre of perfect beauty where nothing is wanting to enrich the scene." Here Scott loved to linger. " I can stand," he said, " on the Eildon Hill and point out forty-three places famous in war and verse." And hither he came with Washington Irving in 1817. " I have brought you, like the pilgrim in the ' Pilgrim's Progress," to the top of the Delectable Mountains, that I may show you all the goodly regions hereabouts. Yonder is Lam- mermuir and Smailholm : and there vou have Gala- Melrose Memories 305 shiels and Torwoodlee and Gala Water ; and in that direction you see Teviotdale and the Braes of Yarrow ; and Ettrick stream winding along like a silver thread, to throw itself into the Tweed. It may be pertinacity, but to my eye, these grey hills and all this wild Border country have beauties peculiar to themselves. When I have been for some time in the rich scenery about Edinburgh, which is like ornamented garden land, I begin to wish myself back again among my own honest grey hills ; and if I did not see the heather at least once a year, / think I should die!" The "glamourie" of Sir Walter is around all, with a spell no less potent than that of the earlier Scot who is made to cleave the once single cone of Eildon into its three picturesque peaks ; or of the " Mysterious Rhymer, doomed by Fate's decree Still to revisit Eildon's lonely tree "; or of " proud Arthur " and his warriors asleep in " Eildon's caverns vast," waiting the blast of the horn that is to peal them forth from Fairyland. On the southern base of the hill nestles Bowden, the birth- place of Thomas Aird, author of " The Old Bachelor," and one of the truest of the Border bards, whose strikingly reahstic " Devil's Dream " is a masterpiece of subtlest imagination. Here also Andrew Scott, the Bowden beadle, wrote his spirited ballad " Symon and Janet " — a tale of the False Alarm — which finds a corner 20 306 Scott Country in every Scottish collection ; and James Thomson, a Bowden native, though for many years resident in Hawick, where he died in 1888, has left verses that will be long remembered. Than his " Auld Smiddy End," "Oor Jock." and others, there are few sweeter compositions in the language. G. P. R. James, the novelist, resided for a time at Maxpoffle, near Bowden, and John Younger,- the philosophical shoemaker of St. Boswells, must not be forgotten. As angler, poet, and essayist his " genial humour, manly independence, and ardent love of literature won for him the esteem of men of every rank, and drew around him the best friendships of the Border." The literary associations of Melrose are, of course, mainly with Scott. The " Kennaquhair " of the " Monastery " and the '" Abbot," the influence of the great romancist touches the whole district. .Here, by the broad tranquil stretch of Tweed, where we may look down upon it from the steep side of the \\'eir Hill — a picture of rare beauty — is the scene of the Sacristan's sousing by the " ^^'hite Lad}-," amusingly narrated in Chapter V. of the former novel. " Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright ; There's a golden gleam on the distant height ; There's a silver shower on the alders dank, And the drooping willows that wave on the bank. I see the Abbey, both turret and tower — It is all astir for the vesper hour ; The monks for the chapel are leaving each cell, But Where's Father Philip, should toll the bell?" Melrose Memories 307 Further up the river at Bridgend, a Httle beyond Darnick, stood the bridge, the keeper of which de- cHned to answer his demand for crossing. " Peter, my good friend, my very excellent friend, Peter, be so kind as to lower the drawbridge. Peter, I say, dost thou not hear ? It is thy gossip, Father Philip, who calls thee." Near by, the Elwand or Elwyn or Allan FAIRY DEAN. Water joins the Tweed, and in its delightful Fairy Dean, " a familiar refuge of the eltin race," says Scott — an ideal summer day's haunt — the " White Lady " made her perplexing appearances. In the open country towards the head of the glen are the three Towers mentioned in Scott's Preface — Hillslap, or Glendearg, where lived Dame Glendinning and her two sons with their two 20 — 2 308 Scott Country guests — the Lady Avenel and her daughter ; Langshaw, and ColmsHe.* The Pavihon, to the east of Elwyndale, was for a time the residence of the sportsman Scrope, who Hved " on terms of affectionate intimacy with Sir Walter." Here he wrote most of his charming sketches — " Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the Tweed." And at Allerly, in the orchard-studded suburb of Gattonside, * Glendearg is dated 1585, later than the period of the " Monastery." Both it and Colmslie were held by the Cairncross family. "The site of an abbey of St. Colm attests a great ecclesi- astical antiquity. Langshaw is more modern, and belongs to Lord Haddington." Melrose Memories 309 opposite the " dark Abbaye " and the Eildons, with the sparkhno^ Tweed rolling between, Sir David Brewster resided from 1S27 till his death in 1868. Hoy, a minor poet of some repute in his day, was a native of Gatton- side, and sings rapturously of that most fascinating village in the rich vale of the Tweed. At Melrose, UR DA\'1D DREWSTKR^ Anne Ross Cousin, wife of the Rev. William Cousin, late Free Church minister, wrote her world-admired hymn, " The Sands of Time are Sinking." Eliza- beth Clephane, authoress of the popular evangelistic hymn — Sankey's favourite — "There were Ninety and Nine that safely lay,"' died at Bridgend in 1869, and 310 Scott Country is buried at Melrose; \\'illiam Brockie, the Border " Admirable Crichton,'' was for a time a law-clerk at Melrose. So was James Dodds, Covenant-bard and historian. '" Dominie Sampson "' finds with some, Lockhart among them, his prototype in George Thomson, son of the parish minister, and a tutor in MARKET CROSS, GAL.' Scott's own family. '* Captain Doolittle " of the " Monastery "" was Captain Walter Tait of the Royal Marines, a one-legged hero who died in 1836. Men- tion should be made of Milne and Wade, historians of the town. A new History of Melrose is still a desideratum, but one is understood to be forthcoming. From Melrose the manufacturing burgh of Galashiels Melrose Memories .S 1 1 (sec page 256) may be easily visited. Originally a small hamlet, built for the accommodation of the Abbey pilgrims, and up to 1770 still a mere village, having only one slated roof and fewer than 800 inhabitants, it is now entirely modern, with a population of 15,000. The name is shrined in Burns's ever-popular pastoral : " There's braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes, That wander thro' the blooming heather ; But Yarrow braes, nor Ettrick shaws Can match the lads o' Gala Water." Some older versions are quoted in Chambers's " Songs of Scotland," and of the ballad of the " Sour Plums o' Galashiels " — the armorial bearings of the town — the air only is preserved, the words being long lost. CHAPTER XV THE rhymer's town A SHRINE in the Scott Country deserving a larger share of attention from lovers of Sir Walter and his work is Earlston, the Rhymer's Town, the pleasantest of drives from Melrose, only four and a half miles distant. With the Tweed and the Eildons in view most of the wav, -through nooks of quiet natural beauty, till the charming Vale of the Leader opens up on the left at Leaderfoot into the very heart of the "Arcadia of Scotland," this is a "bit of the Border" which few modern tourists think of "doing," 3'et know not how much they miss. We may follow Sir Walter's footsteps from Abbots- ford to Melrose, and across the hill b}- Gattonside to Earlston ; or we can picture him driving, as he often did, to Drygrange, " with the milk-white yowes, 'Twixt Tweed and Leader standing," thence to Gladswood and Bemersyde, and round b}- Redpath Rig and Cowdenknowes to the town and Tower of True Thomas. Some of Scott's earliest The Rhymer's Town 313 recollections centred here. The figure of the Rhymer loomed up before him in the old Sandyknovve days, and much of his first hterary work was associated with that once potent name. In the "Minstrelsy" are the triple ballads of the Rhymer, with copious illustrative notes, and the scholarly editing of " Sir Tristrem " was LEADERFOOT. the work of Scott's thirty-third year. He began, too, but did not continue, a romance whose chief subject was Thomas the Rhymer.* And in " Castle Danger- ous," his last novel, the imagination of the writer seems to have returned to the youth-memories of Ercildoune. ' * See appendix to (icneral Preface to " Waverley.'"' t See Chapter V. •^ I 4 Scott Country No personage exercised a stronger influence through- out Scotland during her troublous times than the Seer of Ercildoune, nor is any surrounded with deeper mystery. Somewhere about the beginning of the thirteenth century, when Henry of Winchester sat on the throne of England, and Alexander II. bore the Scottish crown with all its perils, Thomas, destined to be known to future generations as the prophet-bard of his race, appears to have been born on the banks of Leader Water, where stands in sweet rural beauty the Berwickshire village of Earlston. Long before, from the side of this same stream, and closely con- nected with that part of the Border, as we have seen elsewhere in these pages, there had come forth a shepherd lad who had risen to highest rank in the annals of English sainthood. Cuthbert of Durham is a name not likely to perish so long as histor}' preserves the memory of noble souls who have sprung from obscure homes and humble callings. To have produced two such men is to place Leaderside on the roll of classic scenes, and to render it worthy of the tourist's turning aside for a little from the more popular Border shrines. The modern township differs vastly from primitive Ercildoune. The village of Ercildoune, consisting of a few heather-thatched, wattled huts, arose in the haugh of Leader, or what is now termed the "west toun end."" The landscape lay, like most of the Border countrv, in a thick " semlie *' forest of oak and The Rhymer^s Town 81.5 birch, through which roamed " dac and rac and of a' wild bestis great plentie." As time passed on, forest clearings were effected and more permanent habitations set up. One of these, the little hamlet by Leaderside, received the name of Ercildoune, a combination of and development from the Cambro-British Arciol-dnn, "the EARLSTON, look-out" or "prospect-hill," the hill to the south, which gives an extensive view of the Leader and Tweed Valleys. The Black Hill — the hill in question — is crowned by a British fort of three concentric rings or ramparts, which may be yet partially distinguished, and traces of the Ottadeni cave-dwellings — the aborigines of the district — arc also visible. 316 Scott Country Ercildoune appears to have been a place of some importance during the earher years of Scottish '^history. The chief baronial families in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were the Lindsays and the Earls of March and Dunbar. It is improbable that Thomas the Rhymer owned here any extensive domain. His name is not found in any State document of the period, and from the Ragman Roll it is a notable omission. The Lindsays were the ecclesiastical patrons of the place, William de Lindsei de Ercildoune granted to the Priory of Coldingham the church at Ercildoune, and another of the same family, "of Fauope, near the Leder," made sundry bequests to the monks of Melrose. There is no tradition as to the residential abode of the Lindsays. For the Earls of March the accepted tradition of the district is that they had, at the east end of the village, a stronghold known as the Earl's Tower, and that close at hand a group of buildings believed to have been feudal residences gave name to the Earl's Toun, which by-and-by became the designation of the whole village. It is just pos- sible, however, that Cowdenknowes may have been the original seat of the Dunbar family in the district. We read of royal visits to Ercildoune. David, the Sair Sanct, subscribed in June, 1136, apud Erchcldon the Foundation Charter of Melrose Abbey, and his son, Prince Henry, in 11 43, subscribed there the Confir- matory Charter of the same Abbey. Many visits The Rhymer's Town 317 were made to Ercildoune by succeeding Scottish Sovereigns. James IV. " campit an nicht in Ersilton " on his way from Edinburgh to Flodden. The last princely personage. to pay a visit to the town of the Rhymer was the Pretender of 1745, who made then a memorable march to Berwick-on-Tweed, annexing to his train, as he passed through, a large number of cart-horses and cattle belonging to the (to him) disloyal inhabitants. Not a single patch of land in the neighbourhood is held by a representative of the Lindsays or of the great Border house of March and Dunbar. Thus time works changes. Only one relic is left of those far-off days, the Tower of the mysterious Seer whose memory still lingers by the sweet Leader glens and haughs — the memory of a man whose very name held spellbound the heart of a strong yet super- stitious people. Standing beside these ivy-clad walls, we call to mind the words of the poet " Delta " Moir : " While I was yet ignorant that any part of the ruins were in existence they were pointed out to me, and, I need not add, awakened a thousand stirring associa- tions connected with the legends, the superstitions, and the history of medieval ages, when nature brought forth gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire, and social life seemed entirely devoted to ' ladye love and war, renown and knightly worth.' " The Rhymer's Tower is the outstanding " lion '' of 318 Scott Country Earlston, and for the last few years has been more an object of pubHc interest. Some time ago it was rumoured that the ruin and lands surrounding it were in the market, and with this fact came the fear that very possibly the tower might have to vanish before the rising walls of factory or other buildings. The Edinburgh Border Counties Association came to RHYMER S TOWER. the rescue. Their patriotic instincts were aroused, and with praiseworthy zeal they met and decided to accjuire the ancient landmark. This they soon did, and having paid down their price, the Rhymer's Tower was formally taken possession of by the Association at a great public function at Earlston on Friday, August 2, 1895. On that day the usually quiet The Rhymer's Town 319 village was en fete. A holiday had been proclaimed, and an energetic committee busily prepared decorations on a scale never before witnessed in Earlston. Mr. Wallace Bruce, the late United States Consul in Edin- burgh, unveiled a tablet designed by D. W. Steven- son, R.S.A., bearing this inscription, taken from Sir Walter Scott's ballad of " Thomas the Rhymer " : " ' Farewell, my father's ancient Tower ! A long farewell,' said he ; ' The scene of pleasure, pomp, or power. Thou never more shalt be.' ' There is a touch of pathos in the fact that six hundred years after Thomas of Ercildoune passed from the ranks of living men his countrymen should have sought to perpetuate his memory on the very spot where he held court and sang by the shimmering wave of Leader the first lilts of native minstrelsy, and uttered in dark sayings to awestruck listeners all the vision of the future and the wonder that should be. The gathering partook somewhat of a national event, for the influence of Thomas the Rhymer was wide- reaching in its results. He was our earliest romancist, and the " day-starre of Scottish poetry." His reputed prophecies cheered our forefathers with the hope of in- dependence, and the magic fold of his mantle has been flung around such men as Scott and Hogg, Leyden and Veitch, and the rank and file of leal-hearted Borderers who have sung and written of this legend-laden land. 320 Scott Country A word as to the present condition of the Tower before we pass to the Rhymer himself. All that remains is a part of two walls rising to the height of some 30 feet. Around these the ivy has wound itself very firmly, and amongst its thick-set leaves scores of sparrows have found a congenial nesting - place. It is now impossible to formulate any correct idea as to the original architectural features of the building. The Tower has been in its present ruinous state for many years, and no person living can remember it when of larger proportions. It has, however, been stated by aged inhabitants that what apparently had been a kind of courtyard, or barbacan, stretched east- wards to a distance of 40 yards or so, and that this was filled with great stone heaps gathered from the Tower as bit by bit it fell to the ground. These stones were used in the construction of dykes and neighbouring buildings, notably the Rhymer's Mill, in the field adjoining, and the two neat cottages nestling under the shadow of the Tower. But the place is now kept in good order, and the relic of the Rhymer preserved in the best manner possible. Not only should the people of Earlston and of the Border counties be grateful to their Edinburgh brethren for the well-timed movement in purchase of the Tower of Ercildoune, but the spirit of thanks should find expres- sion from every patriotic Scottish heart. Around the personality of Thcmas of Ercildoune The Rhymer's Town 321 quite a crowd of controversies ha\e j^Mthercd. There is, first of all, the question as to his real name. Some allej^'c his surname to have been Learmont, a name common in Earlston down to a recent date. Nisbet, the heraldist, styles him ''Sir Thomas Learmont of Ercildoune in the Merss," but on evidence practi- cally valueless. Hector Boece or Boyis (1465-1536) is the first Scottish historian who gives the Rhymer this name, but, as is well known, Boece's " Scotorum Historia " is largely blended with fictitious state- ments. In no extant charter is Thomas so described. When he is referring to himself there is no mention whatever of the name Learmont. Persons of this name living in Earlston did, it is true, claim kinship with the Rhymer, and the right also of burial close to the Parish Church, in the wall of which is a very ancient stone with the inscription : " Auld Rymr race Lyees in this place." The biographers of Russia's great poet, Mikhail Ler- montoff (1814-1841), refer to his ancestral connection with, and descent from, Thomas of Ercildoune. In many of his poems Lermontoff himself proudly alludes to his Scottish lineage. " Beneath the curtain of mist. Beneath a heaven of storms, Among the hills of my Scotland, Lies the grave of Ossian ; 21 322 Scott Country Thither flies my weary soul, To breathe its native gale, And from that forgotten grave, A second time to draw its life." In another poem, called "The Wish," he long^s to have the wings of the bird, that he might fly " To the West, to the West, Where shine the fields of my ancestors, Where, in the deserted Tower among the misty hills, Rests their forgotten dust." But, after all, may it not be more plausible to st3'le Thomas by the surname of Rimour or Rimor, not because he appears to have been skilled in the art of versif3dng, but because that was his family name? In the Merse, Rimour was in those days a common appellation. It existed in the very locality where Thomas lived. At Gordon and Dryburgh this name has been found figuring on old tombstones and in ancient deeds. Moreover, he explicitly signs himself Rimor in the famous Bemersyde Charter (c. 1270), and his son is described as " the son and heir of Thomas Rimour of Ercildoune." It may be a mere coincidence that although his name was Rimour he should be in reality a rhymer, just in the same way as it frequently happens that a clerk bears the name of his profession. But the chief interest in connection with the story of this old-world figure is his celebrity both as poet and })rophct. Thomas of Ercildoune is usually accorded The Rhymer's Town 323 the first phicc in point of time on the roll of Scotland's sons of son^^ He is the Scottish Chaucer, the founder and father of a school of native poetry. That he had early a wide reputation as a poet is abundantly clear from the testimony of an English contemporary writer, Robert Mannyng of Brunne. In Mannyng's " English THE RHYMER STONE IN EARLSTON CHURCH WALL. Chronicle," a rhyming history of England written about 1330, Thomas of Ercildoune is commemorated as the author of an incomparable metrical romance on the story of " Sir Tristrem," and of this the historian asserts that "it is the best geste ever was or ever could be made, if minstrel could recite it as Thomas com- posed it." Among the treasures discovered in the 21 — 2 324 Scott Country Advocates" Library by Ritson, that most painstaking of antiquaries, is what is known as the Auchinleck MS., presented to the Faculty in 1744 by Alexander Boswell, Lord of Session, father of Dr. Johnson's biographer. The manuscript contains upwards of forty old English romances and fragmentary poems. One of these is a version of " Sir Tristrem,"* which Sir Walter Scott regarded as the undoubted composition of Ercildoune. This he carefully edited in 1804, imme- diately after the publication of the " Minstrelsy."' The opening stanza runs as follows : " I was at Ertheldun, With Tomas spak I there, There heard I rede in roun Who Tristrem gat and here, Who was king with croun,'" etc. Whatever connection the Rhymer had with this Scottish copy of " Sir Tristrem," it must be remem- bered that the story was by no means original. It had appeared in many different versions on the Continent years before the time of Thomas of Ercildoune, and was a favourite theme with the minstrel fraternity. The hero is one of the Knights of the Round Table, and the tale is a somewhat startling catalogue of his amours and adventures. Scott's contention, well founded and vigorously argued, is that credit must be given to the Rhymer for casting the romance into Scottish verse. The composition of Thomas of Ercil- doune is acknowledged to be by far the best version The Rhymer's Town 325 of the famous tale, and for six centuries his name has been bound up with its history. But Thomas was not merely in the popular estima- tion a rhymer or a translator of romances. He was more the prophet than the poet, and is better remem- bered for his reputed powers of vaticination and mystic intercourse with the Faery realm than for any of the COWDENKNOWES. metrical romances that have been attributed to his genius. Many who have never heard of "Sir Tristrem," or of the Auchinleck MS., are quite familiar with the rhyming couplets of prophetic import which genera- tion after generation has ascribed to the sage of Ercil- doune, and, in not a few instances, in spite of what the " higher criticism " has to say on the sui^ject, seem 326 Scott Country to cling to them with strong and fond tenacity. There is no evidence to show that Thomas himself assumed the character of a prophet, but it is certain that in a very few years from his death he was regarded as one possessed in no slight degree of a spirit of divination. Barbour, who wrote about 1375, refers to a prophecy of Thomas concerning the exploits and succession of Robert I. after Bruce had slain Comyn at Dumfries in 1306. Bishop Lamberton is introduced as saying : " I hop Thomas' prophecy Of Hersildoune sail verified be In him."' Bower, who died in 1449, has given a circumstantial account of the celebrated prediction of the Rhymer relative to the tragic death of Alexander III. at King- horn. He is affirmed to have foretold the Union of Scotland and England by one removed in the ninth degree from the Bruce"s blood ; and there are not wanting many instances, still to some extent in popular belief, in which his prophetic genius has cast a weird spell over many of the places and families of the Scottish Borderland. Round about Earlston are the mansions of Cowdenknowes, Bemersyde, and Carolside, which have been the subject either of the Rhymer's invective or his blessing. Of Cowdenknowes he is said to have uttered the couplet : " X'eni^cance, vengeance I when and where : Upon the house of Cowdenknowes, now- and ever mair." The Rhymer ^s Town 327 But the curse of the Rhymer sits hghtly on Cowden- knowes. It is one of the loveHest spots in the Scott Country. The very word has a magical effect on the spirit. It has been embalmed by pastoral melody, and carries us back to the simple usages of our ancestors — to the folds and bughts and ewe-milkings of Scot- land's olden time. Who has not heard of the " bonnie broom o' the Cowdenknowes," shrined in ballad and song of many versions ? What is perhaps the earliest composition on the subject has place in the " Min- strelsy of the Scottish Border," and the lyrics of Robert Crawford and of Allan Ramsay's collection are still highly popular at all musical gatherings. " Oh, the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom, The broom o' the Cowdenknowes ! I wish I were with my dear swain, With his pi])e and my yowes." The present mansion belongs to the sixteenth cen- tury, and is in the baronial style of the Elizabethan period. Carved on the lintel of the former principal entrance are the letters " S. I. H., M. K. H. 1574," understood to indicate the names of a former owner, Sir John Home, and Margaret Ker Home, his wife. Queen Mary is known to have resided for a brief period at Cowdenknowes, on her way from Craigmillar to Jedburgh, and a chestnut-tree near the house is stated to have been planted by her royal hands. The Queen's Room is still called by her name. Close to the 328 Scott Country mansion, and forming now the mam entrance to it, is a large square tower, bearing the date of its erection, I555j and abutting on the riverside the remains of a still older structure are seen. Sir Walter Scott fre- quently visited at Cowdenknowes. [See his ''Journal," September, 1826.] Bemersyde is the oldest in- habited house in this part of the Tweed Valley. For 1 ^ B S 'Sirlibrff SP"^, LK.Mi.K3iU^. almost 1,000 years it has been the home of the Haigs, and a Haig is still in possession. Thomas's blessing on this family has been marvellously fulfilled, though it appeared at times as if the old lines were to belie themselves : " Tyde what may bei> de, Haiy shall be Haig of Bemersyde. ' The Rhymer's Town -329 Beyond mere traditional reputation, however, there is not the remotest evidence to justify the ascription of any prophetic power to the Rhymer of Ercildoune, and as to the rational probability of the thing no argument is necessary. The reverence of the people for a man, extraordinary for his learning and venerable for his years, seems to have been the sole foundation for Thomas's claim to rank among the prophets. The allegories of the poet were converted, as events chanced to suit, into prophecies of which he never dreamed ; and the attributes of a seer being thus once fixed upon him, it is not surprising that in an age when all history was of a poetic structure, his name and authority should often have been fictitiously employed to throw into the commencement of historic narrations those shadows of coming events of which poetry has made such frequent and happy use to heighten the curiosity with which we pursue their development. The story of Thomas of Ercildoune would not be complete without reference to the popular, though absurd, tradition of his translation to Fairyland, and his subsequent meeting at the Eildon Tree with the Queen of that mysterious region. The Eildon Tree has long since disappeared, but the spot is still marked by the Eildon Tree Stone, on the eastern slope of the Eildons, on the left side of the highway as it sweeps round to the west, going towards, and within about two miles, of Melrose. There has come down to us, in four 330 Scott Country different manuscripts, a singular poem, with the name ''Thomas off Ersseldoune," bearing ample testimony to his mystical lore. The Rhymer is represented on a ^ H :'., 1 jpis. ■/J '. f^ c'^ "' " ' Vi^j v~'": i. » ^. ~**^ T ' ^^^^ r^ji >^; ^^-iV-^^ ' ' -^ ^'' '"'^ V ^'^"^ EILDON Tia 1. -r- bright May morning reclining on Huntlee Hankis near Eildon's triple height, when he suddenly descries a lad}- of exquisite beauty mounted on a tlapple-gray palfrey. The Rhymer^s Town 331 and most gorgeously habited. At first Thomas be- lieves her to be the Virgin, but she assures him she is of " another countree." Soon he is lured away by the fair enchantress, and descending through a secret passage at the Eildons, they journey on for three dark, dreary days until they arrive at the Court of Faery, where Thomas dwells for seven years. At the expiry of that period he is permitted to return to his native earth, and as a proof of their friendship and intimacy Thomas receives from his captivator the gift of prophecy — the tongue that could not lie. Henceforth he is True Thomas. Then there is the tradition of his disappearance from his well-known haunts by Leaderside ; the parading of the village street by hart and hind, which was to Thomas a token that his presence was required else- where ; how he followed them to the neighbouring forest, and was seen no more. " Some said to hill and some to glen, Their wondrous course had been ; But ne'er in haunts of living men Again was Thomas seen."' But most people will be content to view the depar- ture of this marvellous man as having occurred in quite the natural manner. For we find, according to a charter still to be seen in the Advocates' Library, that somewhere in the year 1294-95 the Tower of Thomas the Rhymer passed from his family to the 332 Scott Country Trinity House of Soltra as a gift from the Rhymer's son. Before this he is beheved to have married a Fifeshire heiress, of the house of Dairsie, and the small patrimony at Ercildoune, though of barely ten acres, would be of some benefit to that religious community. Wherefore it is evident that the old Rimour — the Rhymer of the people — had passed from Ercildoune, leaving behind him a wealth of memory which is precious to Borderlanders and to Scotsmen all the world over. Six years ago the centuries were reunited — the dark, troubled, superstitious thirteenth and the enlightened, free, intelligent nineteenth. Our fathers firmly believed that on some distant day the figure of Thomas would reappear on middle earth, like Arthur and Merlin, and other old-world heroes, to wander again by the roofless Tower on Leader's glamour-haunted stream. Could the Rhymer have had a more fit occasion than when his fellow- Borderers, living 600 years after his day, gathered in ancient Ercildoune, and proclaimed themselves the proud pos- sessors of Scotland's first poetic shrine — his ancestral home ? Among other Earlston associations the following might be briefly mentioned : Alexander Shields, the famous Covenanter, author of the " Hind Let Loose," was a native of the parish. Lady Grisell Baillie, the girl-heroine of Polwarth, and writer of the touching " Werena my Heart licht I wad Die," lies in the The Rhymer's Town 333 ancestral aisle at Mellerstain, John Gowdie, D.I)., Principal of Kdinburjj^h Universit}', was parish minister from 1704 to 1730. James Sanson, an alleged proto- type of " Dominic Sampson," was tutor for a time at the Manse of Earlston, and a licentiate of the Presbytery. Dr. Alexander Waugh, the celebrated London divine, was a pupil in the parish school. So was George Cupples, the novelist of the " Green Hand," " the finest seafaring story in the English language." The Carters of the great New York publishing firm were all natives, and Alexander Anderson, who perished in Park's — his brother-in-law's — ill-fated expedition, was born at Earlston in 1770. CHAPTER XVI HOMES AND HAUNTS OF HOGG In one of the " Noctes Ambrosianse " the Shepherd is made to express the hope that " when he is cauld in the mools there may be a bit monument to his memory in some quiet spot foment Tibbie's dvvelHng." The visitor to St. Mar3''s knows how that wish has been reahzed in the massive freestone statue over- looking the waters of the lonely Lake. The poet is represented seated with his dog Hector at his side on an oak root, as if in deep meditation, his right hand grasping a stout shepherd's staff, and in his left a scroll, on which is inscribed the last line of the " Queen's Wake" : " Hath taught the wandering winds to sing." But it was not until a quarter of a century after the shepherds had borne all that was mortal of the Shepherd across his native hills to the green kirk- yard of Ettrick that the proposal took definite shape, and became an accomplished fact. On June 28, i860, in presence of a vast gathering from all parts of the Border country, and, unfortunately, as many still recall, Homes and Haunts of Hogg -^^5 amidst a downpour of rain continuous and furious as had been seldom witnessed in Yarrowdalc, the monu- ment was inaugurated by Sheriff Glassford Bell, an MONUMENT AT ST. MARY : attached friend of the bard, himself a singer of no mean repute. The statue is the work of Andrew Currie of Darnick, the late well-known Border sculptor and antiquar}-. Exactly thirty-eight years and one month 336 Scott Country after that event — on July 28. i8g8 — another com- memoration of the Ettrick Shepherd took place at Ettrickhall, where he was born in 1770. Here, in the ver}' heart of the Ettrick homeland, within a bow- shot of Ettrick Kirk, had stood the little clay bigging of his birth, but demolished for many years, its site marked by a single stone in the adjoining dyke — part of the jamb of the old kitchen, with the letters " J. H." scratched on its surface. It was felt a pity that this should be the sole tangible reminder of James Hogg's birth-spot, and the subject of a worthier memorial pre- sented itself. The Edinburgh Border Counties Associa- tion, which has taken a deep and practical interest in the literature of the Border and the preservation of its landmarks, applied itself to the task, with the result that a large sum of money was soon contributed, and the monument put in skilful hands. Built of red Corsehill freestone, standing about 20 feet high, and carrying a bronze medallion of the poet, it forms a striking feature by the wayside — an object of beauty — an honour to Ettrick and the Association under whose auspices it has been set up. To all this recognition the Ettrick Shepherd has a distinct claim. As a poet of the Borders it has been customary to rank him next to Scott and before Leyden in the noble triumvirate of Lowland bards. And in the broader field of Scottish song he is a good second to Burns. Ferrier's estimate of Hogg as, "after Homes and Haunts of Hogg 337 Burns, proxintits scd Iciii^o inlcrvallo, the greatest poet that had ever sprung from the bosom of the common MONUMENT AT HTTRICKHALL. people," is the criticism now generally accepted. Still, in many respects Hogg was a more astonishing man, 338 Scott Country and a more singular genius, than Burns. All the schooling he ever had was passed through in six months, and comprised the barest elements — a little reading, the Shorter Catechism, the Proverbs of Solomon, and a penmanship that was of absolutely no use to him. At six years, that tender age when most children in the outlying districts are ventured to school for the first time, the future poet was herding a neighbour's cows, receiving for his half- year's wage a ewe lamb and a pair of shoes. An uphill struggle under the most trying circumstances, enough to quail the stoutest heart, had this herd and orra boy of the Ettrick hills. But he had his secret — a kind of holy rapture — the consciousness of an aspiration, and a power unknown and 'unfelt by the plodding peasantry around him. There was one who had caught his secret. He had for mother a woman who knew something about the heroism of common life. She was of the type it is a joy to meet among the solitary glens of the Ettrick and Yarrow, or of the Tweed — a shepherd's wife, ''assiduous in daily duty, with a freshness of heart and a quick- ness of head that brighten toil." To Margaret Laidlaw, far more than to Robert Hogg, was the young shepherd indebted for the moulding of his future. His continuation - school he found at his own fireside. To make up for his meagre education, his mother began to teach him during the evenings, Homes and Haunts of Hogg 339 and so well did she accomplish her task that he was able with comparative ease to peruse the books that came within his reach, and to master other subjects of study. It was owing to his mother, too — let us record the fact, for it means so much — that the witching spell of the Border was cast over his opening mind. Few were more familiar with its song and ballad literature. From the full treasure-house of his mother's memory he gathered and hoarded those golden seeds which in after-years were to yield such abundant fruit. He was a poet from his mother's knee. He felt that somehow he lived above the common level. It was, no doubt, the lack of schooling which hindered suc- cess at an earlier period. Still, by the home-hearth he learned some of his best lessons, and drew thence the most real inspiration for the work of his life. Had he been a town's boy, with an average education, or born to a higher social heritage, the probability is he might never have blossomed into a poet. He would not have been the pet child of Nature. He would not have been the •• Ettrick Shepherd "' — the ;' King of the Mountain and Fairy School." It was the straitened circum- stances of his life, his lot cast amid the solitudes, the wealth of opportunity for Nature-study, and by-and-by the revelation of the Master-Bard himself, that woke within him the dream of becoming a poet and singer of the people. The glamour of Border story took hold of Hogg as it took hold of Scott and Leyden in the obscure 340 Scott Country homesteads and amid the quiet, unobtrusive hfe of the Southern hills. He tells us himself about it : " Oh, list the mystic lore sublime. Of fairy tales of ancient time ! I learned them in the lonely glen, The last abodes of living men, Where never stranger came our way, By summer night or winter day ; Where neighbouring hind or cot was none — Our converse was with heaven alone — With voices through the clouds that sung, And brooding storms that round us hung. Oh, lady ! judge, if judge ye may, How stern and simple was the sway Of themes like these when darkness fell, And gray-haired sires the tale would tell ! When doors were barred, and elder dame Plied ac her task beside the flame That through the smoke and gloom alone On dim and umber'd faces shone — The bleat of mountain-goat on high That from the cliff came quavering by ; The echoing rock, the rushing flood, The cataract's swell, the moaning wood ; The undefined and mingled hum. Voice of the desert, never dumb ! All these have left within this heart A feeling tongue can ne'er impart ; A wildered and unearthly flame, A something that's without a name." Living thus the free, glad, healthful life of the uplands, in touch with Nature as day succeeded day. exploring the by-paths of Border romance and chivalry, and knowing something, too, of the gentler passions that Homes and Haunts of Hogg 341 fire the human breast, the Shepherd passed from one stage of poetic experience to another. And then there came that time, in the spring of 1813, when the world was forced to Hsten to the pure, sweet strains of the THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD. [By permission of Messrs. BKackie and Son. harp that the Yarrow dens and the Ettrick glens had at length brought to full and perfect tune. Had Hogg written nothing but the " Queen's Wake," and of that only "' Kilmeny," he would have well earned a secure place on the roll of Scottish Minstrels. It did not pay 342 Scott Country him in world's gear, but it brought him the better inheritance of an imperishable name. So long as the Scottish tongue is spoken, so long will be sung the songs of the Ettrick Shepherd, and his memory reverenced as the deep-taught visionar}- of the realm of Faery, as the poet who has expressed, in a way no modern bard has been able to do, the " awesomeness " and mystery that clothe and veil the supersensible from mortal eyes. Hogg's life was mostly passed in Ettrick and Yarrow. By the time he was fifteen he had already served, he tells us in his autobiographv, a dozen masters, changing alwaj's, not for any fault, but for higher work or "fee." Sin^lie on the Ettrick, Elibank by the Tweed, and Woolandslee on the Leithen Water, are places asso- ciated with Hogg during this period. At the age of twenty he entered the service of James Laidlaw of Blackhouse, at the head of the Douglas Burn, a tributary of the Yarrow. He was the father of Willie Laidlaw, who became his fast friend. Here Hogg began the writing of verses, and heard for the first time of Burns and " Tam o' Shanter." In 1800 he was back at Ettrick, assisting his parents, growing old and infirm. By iSoi he had produced his first publica- tion — a collection of very mediocre verse, an unfortu- nate venture ot which he was afterwards pretty much ashamed. In 1802 he had his first meeting with Scott at Ettrickhall. Scott was then gathering material for Homes and Haunts of Hogg 343 the " Minstrelsy," and through Luidlaw had learned about Hogg and his mother. • Fronn the latter he obtained the ballad of " Auld Maitland," with which he expressed great delight. " Has it e\er been printed ?" he asked. " Oh, na, na, sir," replied the old lady; "there were never ane o' my sangs prentit till ye prentit them yoursel', an' ye hac spoilt them BLACKHOUSE. athegither. They were made for singing, an' no for reading ; but ye hae broken the charm now, an' they'll never be sung mair. An' the worst thing o' a', they're neither right spell'd nor right settin' doun." This friendship between Scott and Hogg ripened with the years, ending only at Scott's death. Many a kindness did the Shirra show his humbler brother of the muse, 344 Scott Country and, of course, the Shepherd obHged the Shirra, too, in not a few ways. Their mutual regard was of the most sterhng character, in spite of occasional outbursts, and Hogg paid some manly poetical tributes to his more famous patron. After leading a kind of rambling, immethodical life for a time as shepherd, farmer, land- agent, and editor, during which he did a good deal of literary work, Hogg finally settled down in 1815 at Altrive, a small farm on the Yarrow, given him at a nominal rent by the Duke of Buccleuch. As he sings, " Blest be Buccleuch and a' his line. For ever blessed may they be ! A little hame I can ca' mine He reard amid the wild for me." In 1820 he married Margaret Phillips, an Annandale lady of good famil}', twenty 3'ears his junior. She made him an excellent wife, and survived him thirty- five years, dying at Linlithgow in 1870. Not long after his marriage Hogg rented the farm of Mount Benger, on the north side of the Yarrow opposite Altrive, but a seven years' lease proved a disastrous failure. Then he went back to Altrive, spending the closing years of his life in comparative com- fort. The last meeting between Scott and Hogg took place in the autumn of 1830 at the Gordon Arms, the well-known inn on the Yarrow highway. "He sent me word,'" says Hogg, "that he was to pass on such a day on his way from Drumlanrig Castle to Homes and Haunts of Hogg 345 Abbotsford. I accordingly waited at the inn and handed him out of the carriage. His daughter was with him, but we left her at the inn, and walked slowly down the way as far as Mount Benger Burn. He then walked very ill indeed, for the weak limb had become almost completely useless ; but he leaned on my shoulder all the way, and did me the honour of GORDON ARMS saying that he never leaned on a firmer or a surer. We talked of many things, past, present, and to come, but both his memory and onward calculation appeared to me then to be considerably decayed. I cannot tell what it was, but there was something in his manner that distressed me. He often changed the subject very abruptly, and never laughed. He expressed the deepest concern for my welfare and success in life more 'UG Scott Country than I had ever heard him do before, and all mixed with sorrow for my worldly misfortunes. There is little doubt that his own were then preying on his vitals. When I handed him into the coach that day, he said something to me which, in the confusion of parting, I forgot ; and though I tried to recollect the ETTRICK KIRK. words the next minute, I could not, and never could again. It was something to the purport that it was likely it would be long ere he leaned as far on my shoulder again. But there was an expression in it, conveying his affection for me, or his interest in me, which has escaped my memory for ever." Thus the two poets parted for the last time on earth, appropri- Homes and Haunts of Hogg ately enough in beloved Yarrow — dear to Hogg, and dearest vale on earth to Scott. In 1832 Hogg visited London, was feted and lionised, and met Carlyle, who, with his usual gruffness, has thus described him : " Hogg is a little red-skinned stiff rock of a body, with quite the common air of an Ettrick shepherd, except that he has a highish though sloping brow (among his yellow grizzled hair) and two clear little beads of blue or gra}' eyes that sparkle, if not with thought, yet with anima- tion. I felt interest for the poor ' herd body,' won- dered to see him blown hither from his sheepfolds. and how, quite friendless as he was, he went along, cheerful, mirthful, and musical." Towards 1835 his health showed symptoms of failing. In July he had his last look on the old scenes where he had spent the happiest ten years of his life. " I guessed," says his son, " as we wended our way up Douglas Burn, past the old tower and the farm- house of Blackhouse, that he was taking his last look HOGG S TOMBSTONE. 348 Scott Country of them. We rode up to the stones that mark the graves of the seven brethren alluded to in the old ballad, at the top of the Risp Syke, and he took a long look at all the scenery which had been so familiar to him in days gone by. We then returned home, and I was right in my surmise, for he never saw Black- house again." By November of the same year he was laid beside his shepherd ancestors under the shadow of Ettrick Kirk, and amid the haunts of his youth. Over the grave his widow erected a simple stone sur- mounted by a little mountain harp, under which are carved his name and birthplace. Ettrick guards his dust. That name will keep his ever green. While time rolls on, in memory's urns, And patriot fire her bosom thrills, Shall be enshrined with Scott and Burns The Shepherd of the Ettrick HillF. CHAPTER XVII YARROW AND ETTRICK Opposite the old court-house in Selkirk, where he performed official duties for two-and-thirty years, stands the statue of the " Shirra," Scott's most familiar desig- nation in Selkirkshire, or Ettrick Forest. " A speaking likeness," said one who came into daily contact with him. Dressed in his Sheriff's gown, his right hand leaning on his staff, and his head bare to all the winds (how touching when seen under a snowstorm!), one might almost fancy the lips as about to give utterance to his own beautiful lines graven beneath : " By Yarrow's streams still let me stray, Though none should guide my feeble way ; Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break, Although it chill my wither'd cheek/'" The monument, erected in August, 1839, is " in proud and affectionate remembrance of Sir Walter Scott, baronet, Sheriff of this County from 1800 to 1832." Than the " Forest " no bit of the Border was dearer to Scott. For the greater part of his life 350 Scott Country the *' shaws " of Ettrick and " braes " of Yarrow were among his most beloved landmarks. In the " raiding " days, and afterwards, friendships were formed in every glen, and there could be no sincerer respect than that which Scott showed for the homely round of rustic THE " SHIRRA. life all about him. Scarce!}- a shepherd or a plough- boy but felt at ease in the Shirra's presence. His was the most adorable figure in the Forest. The impress of Scott has stamped itself upon wellnigh every " cleuch " of Ettrick and on every "'hope"' in Yarrow. And remembering the wealth of romantic Yarrow and Ettrick 351 story centrinj:;^ around the sister valleys, perhaps no district in Scotland is the subject of a larger literature. It is at least certain that no river has been more besung than the Yarrow. Yarrow is an unfailing fascination. The name is redolent of all that is most pathetic and inspiring in Border poetry. The favourite haunt of Scott ; the delight of Wordsworth in his brief Border excursions ; the happy abode of the " Shepherd," whose name for ever links the twin streams together ; the holiday home of Christopher North and many of his academi'c successors, it is no surprise that Yarrow and Ettrick year after year attract to their "dear and refreshing solitudes " the rank and tile of summer wanderers. For many, no holiday equals a holiday in Yarrow. Norman Macleod used to say that his " highest idea of earthly happiness was to spend a long summer's day in Yarrow, with a few choice friends, stretched at full length on the grassy sward, amidst the blooming heather, looking up to the bright sky and leisurely smoking a cigar, when the outer world was completely shut out, and the first person who spoke of Church affairs should be bastinadoed." Whence is the charm of Yarrow, and the secret of that undercurrent of mclanchoh' running all through its song ? Why should Yarrow be the personitication, so to speak, of poetic grief and despair ? The emotion of the stream has been compared to a brief, bright morning full of promise, with the hills splendid and 352 Scott Country the heart glad, but ere noon there comes the cloud with its rain and tears, and evening close with only the memory of vanished joy. Almost all the Yarrow ballads have some such beginning and ending. And in modern verse there is the same irresistible, indefinable wail. Men of all minds, and of the most diverse gifts, have come under its spell, and in each the strain of sadness is the same. The ballad of the " Dowie Dens " expresses in its very title the leading idea of the whole. Hamilton of Bangour's exquisitely tender " Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny Bride," and John Logan's winsome lines beginning: " Thy braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream 1 When first on thee I met my lover ; Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream ! When now thy waves his body cover," are a "dismal echo" of the "Dowie Dens." Some verses of the latter Scott considered among the most poetic ever penned, such as these : " His mother from the window looked, With all the longing of a mother ; His little sister weeping walk'd The green\yood path to meet her brother : They sought him east, they sought him west, They sought him all the Forest thorough ; They only saw the cloud of night, They only heard the roar of N'arrow." Wordsworth's three Yarrows ; Henry Scott Riddell's stanzas on the "Dowie Dens"; the professorial Effusions Yarrow and Ettrick 353 of the four Johns — Wilson, Blackic, Shairp, and Veitch ; J. B. Selkirk's " Death in Yarrow," and his magnificent " Song of Yarrow " ; " Surfaceman's " " Yarrow Braes," and most of Scott's and Hogg's references, all breathe the spirit that seems alone to hang over this vale of ,dule and sorrow. And away behind these modern singers are the old minstrels with their love-lorn tales ending chiefly in tragedies and tears. '* Willie's Drowned in Yarrow " is full of touching sentiment and melting pathos : " Willie's rare and Willie's fair, And Willie's wondrous bonny, And Willie's hecht to marry me, Gin e'er he married ony. " Yestreen I made my bed fu' braid, This night I'll make it narrow, For a' the livelong winter night I'll lie twin'd of my marrow. " She sought him east, she sought him west, She sought him braid and narrow ; Syne, in the cleaving of a craig, She fand him drown'd in Yarrow. It is impossible to touch here more than a fringe of the " secret " of Yarrow, or to chronicle even a tithe of those " High souls, come and gone, who on these braes have thrown The light of their glorious fancies. And left their words to dwell and mingle with the spell Of a thousand old romances." 23 354 Scott Country Yarrow and Ettrick 355 The Yarrow of song and of reality are not different. At first sight that may appear so, but a closer acquaint- ance reveals the strong, sterling relationship existing between them. Wordsworth's apostrophe comes naturally to our lips : "And is this — Yarrow? — This the stream Of which my fancy cherished, So faithfully, a waking dream ? An image that hath perished ! O that some minstrel's harp were neai To utter notes of gladness. And chase this silence from the air That fills my heart with sadness ! Yet why ? a silvery,, current flows With uncontrolled meanderings ; Nor have these eyes by greener hills Been soothed, in all my wanderings.' For the Yarrow and Ettrick valleys our starting-point is Selkirk, the county town and umquhile capital of the Forest. Picturesquely situated on the steep hillside overhanging the Ettrick, graced with wealth of green- wood and architectural charm, the place is not inaptly described as having somewhat the look of an ancient Italian city. A neat, well-built, well-kept, healthy, and prosperous town Selkirk is. Like Hawick and Gala- shiels, it is mostly a creation of the by-past century, the result of the introduction and rapid extension of the tweed industry. Its origin takes us back to the time of Eata and Cuthbert at Old Melrose, and the Culdee Christianizing of Tweedside. It has been stated, ^3—2 356 Scott Country but is manifestly erroneous, that " Ceolfrid, Abbot of Yarrow,'"* mentioned in Bede's " Histor}'," was the pioneer of the Gospel in Selkirkshire. With the growth of the historical Forest, and its popularity as a royal hunting-ground, there arose the hamlet of hunters" huts and primitive sanctuary known by the name of Schelechyrch, " the kirk of the shielings," gradually softened to the modern Selkirk. Although spoken of as an old town in the time of David I., with his reign its history properly begins. That was the great ecclesiastical era in early Scottish story. While yet Prince of Cumbria, David founded at Selkirk, in 1113, the Yironensian Abbey, after- wards transferred to Kelso (see p. 45). The hunting- seat, of which little is known, bore the designation of Castle, and was occupied frequently by William the Lion, Alexander II., and Alexander III. By the time of the Bruce it ceased to be a royal residence, and soon passed into extinction. In the Kirk of the Forest, assumed to be that of Selkirk, though possibly the Church of St. Mary's in Yarrow, Wallace was, in 1298, elected Governor of Scotland. At the disastrous battle of Falkirk, in the same year, the Selkirk Foresters, fine, tall men, and fearless fighters, fell to a man by the side of their leader. Sir John Stewart. Two centuries later the Flodden calamities clouded the heart of Scotland. According to tradition, eighty well-armed men from * \'arro\v is rather Jarro\v-on-Tyne, a celebrated monastic seat. Yarrow and Ettrick 357 Selkirk, headed by William Brydone, the town clerk, marched to the fatal tield, where most of them perished. An English standard brought home by the survivors adorns the walls of the Free Library, and, as at Hawick, the memory of Flodden is a distinctive feature of the annual Common-Riding festival. In revenge for their gallantry the English sacked Selkirk, leaving it in ruins. Under James V., however, it regained its former im- portance by new charter rights, large gifts of land, and liberty to cut down as much wood as was required for rebuilding. Selkirk's coat of arms is said to depict an incident of the return from Flodden. " One of the burgher's wives," an old chronicler writes, "went out with a child, thinking long for her husband, and was found dead at the root of a tree, and the child sucking her breast, on the rising ground which is called Lady- wood Edge to this day." But it is more than likely that the figures represent the Virgin and child, a relic of the town's monastic memories. The fight at Philip- haugh, September 13, 1645, the last of the great Border battles, is closely connected with Selkirk. There General David Leslie surprised and put to rout the Royalist troops under Montrose, forcing the " Great Marquis" to an ignominious flight across Minchmoor. His quarters in Selkirk on the eve of the battle are still pointed out, and an ivy-circled cairn within the grounds of Philiphaugh commemorates the heroes of the Covenant. 358 Scott Country The literary associations of Selkirk are historically interesting. Flodden and Philiphaugh survive in song and ballad lore. "The Battle of Philiphaugh," first published in the "Minstrelsy" — a crude and " fusion- less " production, much inferior to the common run of Yarrow verse — was somehow a favourite with Scott, who was fond of quoting the opening lines : " On Philiphaugh a fray began, At Harehead wood it ended ; The Scots out o'er the Graemes they ran, Sae merrily they bended." The old gathering-cry and well-known rhyme, " Up wi' the Souters o' Selkirk, And doon wi' the Earl of Home I And up wi' a' the braw lads That sew the single-soled shoon,'" etc., popularly supposed to refer to Flodden, is certainly of subsequent origin.* * The town rose into prominence during the eighteenth cen- tury for its manufacture of shoes. In 1745 the authorities were able to supply the army of Charles Edward with over 2,000 pairs. It was through this industry that the inhabitants became known as " souters "—that is, shoemakers. To be made a souter of Selkirk is the ordinary phrase for being made a burgess, and the candidate for that honour is always compelled to " lick the birse," passing it through his mouth. Though of older date than Flodden, the twenty lines which are recovered may be a link between that battle and some more recent circumstance. A football match— unlikely enough— has been alleged as the occasion. See Introduction to the verses in the " Minstrelsy" and Chambers's " Songs of Scotland." Yarrow and Ettrick '>5'J The " Flowers of the Forest " is the Flodden dirge that will abide the song-memorial of that fateful day : " Dulc and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border, The English for ance by guile wan the day ; The flowers of the Forest that fought aye the foremost, The prime of our land are cauld in the clay." And " Selkirk after Flodden," by J. B. Selkirk, full of the old minstrel emotion, has a secure place in the literature of shattered hopes and joys : " Miles and miles round Selkirk toun, Where forest flow'rs are fairest. Ilka lassie's stricken doun Wi' the fate that fa's the sairest. A' the lads they used to meet By Ettrick braes or Yarrow, Lyin' thrammelt head and feet In Brankstone's deadly barrow ! O -Flodden Field ! " There stands the gudeman's loom. That used to gang sae cheerie, Untentit noo and toom, Makin' a' the hoose sae eerie. Till the sicht I canna dree ; For the shuttles lyin' dumb Speak the loudlier to me O' him that wunna come. O Flodden Field !" A loyal son of the Forest, there are few keener students of its history, and no better interpreter of the Yorrow feeling. His " Song of Yarrow " is as tine as any of Wordsworth's contributions to the poetry of the stream. 3 GO Scott Country "Looking back in Yarrow" — a gi genial if sad retrospect ; and " Death in Yarrow "' — a widower's wail for the light of his eyes suddenly quenched — are the work of unquestionably the most notable living bard of the Border. Of Andrew Lang, Selkirk-born, Borderers have long had reason for pride. From the close grind of London literary life he snatches now and again the opportunity for refreshing youth- time memories and quickening the " Borderesqueness " of his heart in those delightful little lyrics of which we cannot have too many. Mr. Lang is never more at home, and his verse rings not to a truer and more musical note, than when the Muse of Tweed or Yarrow inspires his pen. One would fain quote in full his charming "Twilight on Tweed": " Three crests against the saffron sky, Beyond the purple plain, The kind remembered melody Of Tweed once more again. " Wan water from the Border hills Dear voice from the old years, Thy distant music lulls and stills. And moves to quiet tears. " Like a loved ghost thy fabled flood Fleets through the dusky land ; Where Scott, come home to die, has stood, My feet returning stand. "A mist of memory broods and floats. The Border waters flow ; The air is full of Ijallad notes, Borne out of long ago. Yarrow and Ettrick 361 ' Old songs that sung themselves to me, Sweet through a boy's day-dream, While trout below the blossom'd tree Plashed in the golden stream. * + * * "Twilight, and Tweed, and Eildon Hill, Fair and too fair you be ; You tell me that the voice is still That should have welcomed me." Selkirk boasts yet another singer, not so well known as he might be — Andrew Mercer, friend of Ley den, Campbell, and Park, author of " Summer Months among the Mountains," and other works. He died at Dunfermline in 1842. In the old Forest Inn, long demolished, its site marked by a marble slab in the wall close to the Manse, Burns wrote, in 1787, his " Epistle to Creech." Mungo Park began life as a surgeon's apprentice at Selkirk, and the statue of the great traveller stands opposite the house of his early training. Dr. Ebenezer Clarkson, Scott's medical attendant, was, so Lockhart says, the Gideon Gray* of the '• Surgeon's Daughter," Selkirk being the Middle- mas of the novel. Mrs. Anderson, wife of Dr. Thomas Anderson, and her sister— Scotts of Deloraine— were the prototypes of Minna and Brenda in the " Pirate." " Many a pair of sisters, blonde and brune, have we met in fiction since Minna and Brenda, but none * See "Our Gideon Grays" and Note by Dr. John Brown in " Horie Subseciva;," first series, for an excellent account of a day in the life of Dr. Thomas .Anderson, of Selkirk, Park's brother-in-law. 862 Scott Country- have been their peers, and, Hke Mordaunt in early \ears, we know not to which of them our hearts are given." Thus Mr. Lang. In the theological world Professor Lawson and the celebrated Selkirk Hall are prominent landmarks.* " More like the twin brother of the Athenian Socrates than any man I have ever ocularly seen," said Carlyle of the Selkirk sage. It may be recalled, too, that John Welch, of Ayr, Knox's son-in- law, from whom Mrs. Carlyle claimed descent, was minister of Selkirk from 1589 to 1594. Nor must we forget Mr. Craig-Brown, the chronicler of the Forest, ex- Provost, man of public spirit, antiquary, with whom the traditions of Yarrow and Ettrick are familiar as household words, and in whose keeping they are equally safe. His "History of Selkirkshire" is a mine of most valuable information, and a model of the manner in which such a task should be accomplished. And now we turn to the hills "whence classic Yarrow flows." It is impossible to dwell here, with any fulness, on the numberless associations which lie before us in this matchless itinerary. The Yarrow literature is legion, but the reader will find, doubtless, the best of " guides " in x\ngus's " Ettrick and Yarrow " and Dr. Russell's genial " Reminiscences," whilst the life-stories of such men as Hogg and Wilson, the ringing verses of the balladists, with the * Sec "The Life and Times of George Lawson, D.D. (i749- 1820)." By the Rev. John ^L'^cfal■lane, LL.l)., London. Yarrow and Ettrick 'M3 more statcl}- measures of Scott and Wordsworth, cast a glamour over the quietest recesses of the valley. Every spot is, more or less, sacred to romance and song. And " In the yrcen bosom of tlie sunny hills, F"ar from the weary sound of h'uman ills, Where silence sleepeth, Where nothing breaks the still and charmed horns, Save whispering mountain stream that 'neath the flowers For ever crecpeth" — in the midst of all these Nature-communings we shall find full refreshment, and return with renewal of strength to our common world of workaday. A little over two miles from Selkirk we pass Philip- haugh, already mentioned, the erstwhile home of the Murrays, the most ancient family in the Forest, tracing descent from that Archibald de Moravia whose signature appears on the Ragman Roll of 1296. The holders of vast estates in Selkirkshire and elsewhere, boasting, as the old ballad has it : " Fair Philiphaugh is mine by right, And Lewinshope still mine shall be ; "Newark, Foulshiels, and Tinnis baith My bow and arrow purchased me ; And I have native steads to me, The Newark Lea and Hangingshaw ; I have mony steads in the Forest schaw, l>ut them by name I dinna knaw " — not one acre now remains to them. The\' ha\e almost entirely died out, and are little more than a memory by Yarrowside. 364 Scott Country No part of the valley is more picturesque than by Philiphaugh and Bowhill. " Rich groves of lofty stature, with Yarrow winding through the pomp of cultivated nature." Such is the description of the enraptured Wordsworth. The hills almost to the summit are clad with banks of elm and oak, fir, and beech, and rowan, intermingled with copses of hazel and laburnum, wild-rose and broom. Harewood glen, by the river-side, is one of its prettiest nooks, again, Wordsworth sings of it as being full of " Fair scenes for childhood's opening bloom, For sportive youth to stray in ; For manhood to enjoy his strength ; And age to wear away in !" Here, Yarrow and Ettrick 3fi5 It was just about here Scott encountered Park in- tently sonndinj^- the dark and silent pools of the Yarrow, and dreaming, doubtless, of fresh discoveries in that far land to which all his heart had gone out. " And, rising from those lofty groves, Behold a ruin hoary ! The shattered front of Newark's towers, Renowned in Dorder story." The recital of the '' Lay " is placed at Newark : " He pa-sed where Newark's stately Tower Looks down from Yarrow's birchen bower The Minstrel gazed with wistful eye — No humbler resting-place was nigh ; With hesitating step at last The embattled portal arch he passed, Whose ponderous gate and massy bar Had oft rolled back the tide of war. But never closed the iron door Against the desolate and poor." Scott had a peculiar affection for the old fortalice, and would fain have fitted it up as a residence. Hither he was accustomed to conduct his Abbotsford guests, and his last look at the storied stream was from Newark with Wordsworth in 1831 : " Once more by Newark's Castle gate. Long left without a warder, I stood, looked, listened, and with Tliee — (H-eat Minstrel of the Border !" 3G(; Scott Country- Built about 1466 as a hunting-lodge for James III., it passed to the Buccleuch family early in the next centur}-, and was their seat for many years. Burned by the English in 1548, the tower was restored, and is still in excellent preservation. The mounds of its predecessor, built, according to some, in the reign FOULSHIELS. of Alexander III., but probabh- earlier, and known as Auldwark, are still traceable, and hard by, the Slain Men's Lea is a reminder of a regrettable incident after Philiphaugh on the part of the Covenanting conquerors — the butcher}- of a large number of their prisoners in the Castle courtyard. Opposite Newark, Yarrow and Ettrick 'MM and close to the hi[;hway, the rootiess farm -cottaj^e of Foulshiels, the birthplace of Mungo Park, attracts the eye. Born in the same year as Scott, and, like him, the seventh son of a family of thirteen, Park was destined by his parents for the ministry, but preferred medicine. At the age 'of fifteen he became appren- ticed to Dr. Thomas Anderson, a well-known Selkirk surgeon, and at twenty-one he received his diploma from the Edinburgh College. For a time he acted as ship's doctor in the East Indies. In May, 1795, he sailed in the service of the African Association for the coast of Senegal, with the object of solving the secret of the Niger. After an absence of two and a half years, he returned to England on Christmas Day, 1797. In the cottage at Foulshiels he compiled most of the narrative of his travels, which appeared in the spring of 1799. In August he married the eldest daughter of Dr. Anderson. In 1801 we find him settled as a surgeon in Peebles, where, however, he felt entirely out of his element. He told Scott that he would rather brave Africa and its horrors than wear his life done in toilsome rides amongst the hills for the scanty remuneration of a country doctor. In 1805 he again resolutely set his face toward the Niger. But little more than a year afterwards, having passed through many perils and privations, his expedition broken up, the two Forest friends who had accom- panied him dead, and amidst growing opposition from 368 Scott Country the native tribes, he perished by dro\vnin<^ in the rapids at Boussa. His last message home was in these words: "My dear friend Mr. Anderson, and Yarrow and Ettrick 3 GO likewise Mr. Scott, ' are both dead ; but though the Europeans who were with me were dead, and though I myself were half dead, I would still persevere, and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at last die on the Niger." Justly has Joseph Thomson — himself an intrepid explorer — summed up the character of this manliest of Border heroes, the first of the knight-errantry of Africa: " For actual hardship undergone, for dangers faced, and difficulties overcome, together with an exhibition of the virtues which make a man great in the rude battle of life, Mungo Park stands without a rival " A tablet to his memory was placed in the front wall of Foulshiels by Dr. Henry Anderson, of Selkirk, and in 1859 a handsome monument by Currie of Uarnick was erected in the High Street. There will be few who are untouched with the pathos of the Foulshiels ruin — a magnificent commentary on the truth that " Honour and worth from no condition rise ; Act well your part, there all the honour lies !" Broadmeadows, a little further on, recalls the murder of the " dark Knight of Liddesdale " mentioned in the " Lay," who was slain by his kinsman, Earl Douglas, " in the heich of the edge beside Broadmeadows," in * Alexander Anderson, his brother-in-law, born at Karlston in 1770, died of dysentery at Sansanding, October 28, 1805. C.eorge Scott, son of the tenant in Singlie, died of fever at Koomikoomi before reaching the river. -24 370 Scott Country revenge for the Hermitage Castle tragedy (see p. 121) ;* and Sir ^^'alter■s ambition to become "laird of the cairn and the scaur." While he was writing the " Lay " in 1804, it seemed probable that Broadmeadows would be in the market, and in the frequent company of Lord and Lady Dalkeith he rode round it, "when summer smiled on sweet Bowhill," surveying the beautiful little domain with wistful eyes, and antici- pating that "Then would he sing achievements high And circumstance of chivahy, Till the rapt traveller would stay, Forgetful of the closing day ; And noble youths, the strain to hear. Forsook the hunting of the deer ; And Yarrow, as he rolled along, Bore burden to the Minstrel's song." The trim tiower - dressed hamlet of Yarrowford, whence the old mountain path across Minchmoor strikes off, is now passed, and the site of Hangingshaw Castle, where reigned in rude magnificence the " Outlaw '' of the most pictorial of Border ballads : * Sir William Douglas, of Liddesdalc, flourished during the reign of David II., and was so distinguished for his valour that he was called the " Flower of Chivalry." His renown was, however, tarnished by the murder of Dalhousie. His own murder, at the hands of his godson, occurred in 1353. His body lay for a night in Lindean Church, now in ruins, near Selkirk, and was then buried in Melrose Abbey. A cross, long known as "William's Cross,'' marked the si)<)t of liis assassination. Yarrow and Ettrick 371 "There's a fair castelle, bij^j^ed \\i' l\nie and slane ; O ! gin it stands not pleasauntlie ! In the fore front o' that castelle fair, Twa unicorns are bra' to see ; There's the picture of a knight, and a ladye brij^ht, And the grene hoUin abune their brie. " There an Outlaw keepis five hundred men ; He keepis a royalle cumpanie ! His merrymen are a' in ae liverye clad, O' the Lincome grene sae gaye to see ; He and his ladye in purple clad, O ! gin they lived not royallie I"* " Wallace's Trench," on the height to the north of Hangingshaw, between the Tweed and Yarrow tribu- taries — the Peel or Glenkinnon Burn and Hangingshaw Burn — introduces an interesting historical figure to the Forest. Here Wallace lay for a time in 1297 after his early Clydeside experiences, enlisting many Borderers to his ranks, and by-and-by setting out to be the Deliverer of his country, " Armed with matchless might, Gentle in peace, but terrible in fight." • * See the ballad or " Sang of the Outlaw " in the " Minstrelsy." The popular tradition is that John Murray of Philiphaugh, having been appointed custos of Newark, attempted to hold the Castle against the King, but finding the royal forces arrayed against him, he yielded up possession, and was created Sheriff of the Forest. The date given is 1509. Scott, however, maintained, on clear enough grounds, that Hangingshaw, and not Newark, was the scene of the ballad. Not one stone of the tower is left upon another. 24 — 2 372 Scott Country Passing onwards a mile or two by Tinnis and Deuchar,* names shrined in Border story, we reach the cosy, neat Kirk of Yarrow, the next notable land- mark in the vale. A plain building, erected apparently in 1640, many memories cluster around it. Here Scott frequently worshipped. At Ashestiel he was a parishioner of Yarrow. The name was dear to his heart. His maternal great-grandfather, John Ruther- ford, who had been schoolmaster of Selkirk, was minister of the parish from 1691 to 1710, Many a time did Scott during his Yarrow journeys halt awhile at what he styled the "shrine of his ancestors." A mural tablet in the north wall, with a Latin inscription by Professor Rutherford— Scott's grandfather— is worth noting. Rendered into English it reads : " To the memory of the Rev. Mr. John Rutherford, a most worthy and watchful minister of the Church at Yarrow, and of his son Robert, aged four years, Christian Shaw, his bereaved spouse, caused this monument to be set up. * The old Bridge of Deuchar, with broken, ivy-mantled arch, standing out into the stream, forms a romantic-looking picture, and has caught the fancy of more than one artist. Near by are the sites of Deuchar Tower and Chapel. Deuchar Swire, a hill-path leading from this point by way of Traquair to the Tweed valley, is conjectured to be the scene of the combat which forms the groundwork of the famous " Dowie Dens"' ballad : " Late at e'en, drinking the wine, And ere they paid the lawing, They set a combat them between To fight it in the dawing." Yarrow and Ettrick 873 He died May 8, 1710, in the igth year of his ministry, and 69th of his age. Thou wert a faithful pastor, an affectionate father, a reliable friend, a considerate master, a devoted husband and son-in-law. Having fulfilled the duties of a blameless and pure life in years pleasantly spent, thou hast bowed to the Divine will. O thrice happy, thy fame is above the mountain peaks and green banks of Yarrow, thy spirit beyond the stars !" YARROW KIRK. James Hogg was also a regular worshipper at Yarrow Kirk. By far the most distinguished and popular of the long line of incumbents, whose name is a house- hold word in Yarrowdale, were the Russells, father and son, ministers of Yarrow for close on a century 874 Scott Country (1791-1883), both D.D.'s, Lord High Commissioner's chaplains, and men of marked preaching abihty and spiritual power. To Dr. James Russell we are indebted for that charming Border classic, the " Reminiscences of Yarrow," and other local enterprises which have contributed much to the making of modern Yarrow. The present minister of the parish has ably carried on the literary succession in his admirable volumes, " Yarrow, its Poets and Poetry," and " Border Raids and Reivers." From Yarrow Manse, crossing the bridge seen in the illustration, we may enter the Ettrick \'alley by the steep Kershope Swire, passing the ancient Tower of Kirkhope, a Harden stronghold, still well pre- served. But proceeding up the Yarrow, we are soon in the centre of what is urged as the true locale of the "Dowie Dens." Yarrow and the " Dowie Dens" are hnked inseparably. \Vhether the phrase applies to the whole valley, or to the black pools of the river between Harehead and Bowhill, or is to be taken as covering merely the reputed scene of the ballad so named, it is difficult to determine. Standing at a point on the highway about half a mile from the Manse, the hill-line will be found to enclose a fairly complete circle, which is regarded as being at least a kind of geographical definition. On a dull day, and remembering its den-like character, we may easily have in this suggestion an explanation of the well- Yarrow and Etlrick 375 worn phrase. For the tradition, however, Dr. Robert Russell's account in the " Statistical Report of the Parish " for 1833 is perhaps the best : " There is a piece of ground," he writes, " lying- to the west of Yarrow Kirk, which appears to have been the scene of slaughter and sepulchre. From time immemorial it was a low, waste moor, till twenty-five years ago, when formed into a number of cultivated enclosures. On more than twenty different spots were large cairns, in many of which fine yellow dust, and in one an old spear, was found. Two unhewn, massive stones still stand about one hundred yards distant from each other, and which, doubtless, are the monuments of the dead. The real tradition simply bears that here a deadly feud was settled by dint of arms ; the upright stones mark the place where the two lords or leaders fell, and the bodies of their followers were thrown into a marshy pool called the Dead Lake in the adjoining haugh. It is probable that this is the locality of the ' Dovvie Dens of Yarrow.' " There are, indeed, four stones in all, and the un- earthing of a number of "cists" containing human remains, together with the discoveries at the beginning of last century, seems to point to the place as an early battle-scene and burial-ground. The first stone is by Whitehope burnside, adjoining the churchyard ; the second stands close to the Warrior's Rest cottage ; the third is in a field of the glebe ; whilst the fourth, a little further up, is the famous "inscribed stone," the subject of much scholarly inquiry. " When the cultivation of the moor began," continues Dr. Russell, "the plough struck upon a large flat stone of unhewn graywacke, bearing a Latin inscription. Bones and ashes lay beneath it, and on every side the surf^ice 376 Scott Country THE YARROW STONE. presented verdant patches of grass." It has been examined by Scott, Leyden, Park, Dr. J. A. Smith, Sir James Young Simf)son, Sir Daniel Wilson, Pro- Yarrow and Ettrick ?>n fessors Veitch and Rhys,'^ and others. One of the latest readings is Mr. Craig-Brown's: Hic MEMORIAE CETI Here is the monument of LOi NENNIQ Fii PRiNCi Cctilous and Nennus, sons of p ET I NUDI Nudd, Dumnonian prince and DUMNOGENI — HIC JACENT emperor. IN TUMULO DUO FiLli Here lie Ijuried the two sons LIBERALIS. of Liberalis. There is no connection whate\er with this stone and the " Dowie Dens" story. Scott is chiefly responsible for the suggestion that it "probably records the event of the combat." He was the first who lifted the ballad from the mobile lips of the people, and gave it a place among written song in his " Minstrelsy," and his enthusiasm for "localized Romance" led him to accept the site in question. Its circumstantial character, no doubt, appealed to him ; and, ignorant of the inscription, he jumped to the conclusion that it was no other than the scene of the tragedy. Dr. Rhys is of opinion that the stone dates back to the fifth or sixth century, whilst the ballad incident is probably of the seventeenth century.t To the popular mind, however, the spot will have no * Principal Rhys has again examined the Yarrow stone (1901), and is understood to have noted afresh reading. His investigation has not yet been pubhshed. f See Craig- Brown's " Selkirkshire," where the question is dis- cussed, and extracts given from the Selkirk Presbytery Record of date 1616, which seem to throw considerable light on the subject. 878 Scott Country other association. The spell of the past hundred years is not likely to be broken, or the pictures of the balladist to become less vivid and pathetic. How much of womanly winsomeness and heroism, of knightly dignity and daring, and the "unconquerable strength of love," are portrayed in the following stanzas ! There are, in- deed, fe%v ballads in any language that match its strains : " She kiss'd his cheek, she kaim'd his hair, As oft she had done before, O ; She belted him with his noble brand, And he's away to Yarrow. ***** " ' If I see all, ye're nine to ane ; And that's an unequal marrow ; Yet will I fight, while lasts my brand, On the bonnie banks o' Yarrow.' " Four has he hurt, and five has slain, On the bloody braes of Yarrow, Till that stubborn knight came him behmd, And ran his body thorough. * * * * * " ' Yestreen I dream'd a dolefu' dream ; I fear there will be sorrow ! " I dream'd I pu'd the heather green, Wi' my true love on Yarrow.' ****■)(■ '• She kiss'd his check, she kaim'd his hair, She search'd his wounds all thorough ; She kiss'd them till her lips grew red, On the dowie houms of Yarrow."* * See the admirable Yarrow papers by Professor Veitch in '• Border Essays," and the late Sir Noel Paton's six scenes from the ballad — one of his hapjjiest productions. Yarrow and Ettrick 379 But we must hurry on. Here is Yarrovvfeus, a holiday haunt of uncommon attractiveness. From June to September these smihng cottages have their full quota of visitors, for Yarrow's popularity seems not to lessen. Where shall we find better conditions for that bracing and restful sojourn of which so many are in search ? About a mile further on we have pointed out to us the site of Hogg's Mount Benger, not a stone left on another. " It was a gey cauld place," he remarks in the " Noctes," "stannin' yonder on a knowe in a funnel in the thoroughfare of a per- petual sough." But kindly memories clustered about it. " It was cheerfu', too, in the sun - glints, and hallowed be the chaumer in which my bairns were born." Hogg's tenancy was a vexing failure — so disastrous that his daughter writes of it as, "of all the misfortunes which befell him, the worst and most lasting in its effects." " It clouded his remaining years with difficulties which he was never able altogether to surmount." Yet some splendid literary work was done here, and in the first two years his earnings were upwards of ^^750. The Gordon Arms (see p. 345) is a little beyond. Across the steep Eldin Swire to the left, leading into Ettrick, Hogg's funeral passed in 1835. Near by is Altrive, now Eldinhope, where he died. The kitchen and study — the room in which Hogg died — of the old farmhouse, are incorporated in the modern building. On the Yarrow highway we 380 Scott Country pass close to the little school, the successor to that which Hogg founded about 1823, a lasting memorial of his thoughtfulness for the children, remembering his own earl}- disadvantages. Memories of the Shepherd come to us at every hand. No name is more vener- ated. Hogg is the presiding genius of the Yarrow and Ettrick glens, as Scott is of the Tweed. His character shines out as that of a true son of Nature, "alive," as Professor Aytoun puts it, "to every kindly impulse, and fresh at the core to the last,*' a straight- forward, manly, lovable figure in the most real sense, notwithstanding the nonsense of the " Noctes," or the stupid, spleenful criticisms which have been heaped upon him. Even Lockhart is forced to admit that Hogg was the " most remarkable man who ever wore the maud of a shepherd"; and to Veitch's exclama- tion, "When shall we see such another Shepherd?" there is onl}' one reply. Now we are at the Craig-of-Douglas and the "wan water " of the Douglas Burn, on the threshold of a song-land as full and rich as any in this sanctum sandoriun of Romance. Not a nook that we have passed but is the scene of some tragic or romantic incident, many of them remembered, more forgotten. The bracken on the brae-face and the purpling heather are hardly more indigenous. To lose the sheen of " lone Saint Mary's " could not be more startling than to have a romanceless Yarrow. Up the Douglas Glen Yarrow and Ettrick 381 382 Scott Country a couple of miles or so, in the heart of the hills, but not the wild, desolate region fancy has pictured, stands the shattered Keep of the good Sir James of Douglas, Bruce's favourite soldier and friend, who strove to carry his heart to the Holy Land. Here was the early home of that " tender and true " race whose names are blazoned high in the old Scottish story. Here, too, tradition shrines the " Douglas Tragedy."' The bridle- path between Yarrow and Tweed by which the lovers tied from the pursuing brothers is still traceable among the bent and heather ; and higher on the moor, at the head of the Risp Syke, are the grey weird stones which mark the spot where Margaret Douglas " Held his steed in her milk-white hand, And never shed one tear, Until that she saw her seven brethren fa', And her father hard fighting-, who loved her so dear."* Then there is the doleful denouement common to this t}-pe of ballad. It is conquest and freedom at a fatal price — crushed ambition and death's despair : " O they rade on, and on they radc, And a' by the light o' the moon, Until they cam to yon wan water And there they lighted down. * Manifestly the stones are of older origin than the Tragedy. There are eleven in all— three still standing, the rest lying flat on the ground. They form, doubtless, a Druidical circle, or other prehistoric relic. It may be noted that this ballad, though localized Yarrow and Ettrick 383 "Tliey lighted clown to tak" a drink Of the sprinj,^ that ran sac clear ; And down the stream ran his gude heart's blood, And sair she 'gan to fear. " ' Hold up, hold up, Lord William,' she says, ' For I fear that you are slain !'— ' 'Tis nothing but the shadow of my scarlet cloak Thai shines in the water sac plain.' ■X- * * * * " Lord William was dead lang ere midnight, Lady Marg'ret lang ere day — And all true lovers that go thegither, May they liave mair luck than they 1" Blackhouse is dear to us for Hogg's ten happy years on its dark heathery Heights and winsome companion- ship with gentle WilHe Laidlaw. On the Hawkshaw Rig he heard for the first time of Coiki's Bard, and set himself to croon verses of his own composing. It was here he mastered the early lessons of that " mountain and fairy school " of which he became Interpreter-in- Chief: " The Queen of the Fairies, rising silently Through the pure mist, stood at the Shepherd's feet. And half forgot her own green Paradise Far in the bosom of the hill — so wild. So sweet, so sad, flowed forth that Shepherd's lay." From Blackhouse, through the Hawkshaw Doors, whence Scott had his first vision of St. Mary's Loch, on the Douglas Burn, is, in various versions, widely diffused throughout Europe, and is specially well-known in Scandinavia, as are also the plots and incidents of most of the Border ballads. 384 Scott Country to " Dryhope's ruined Tower," the home of his ancestress, the beautiful Flower of Yarrow, is a pleasant hill-side saunter. Besung by Allan Ramsay and many a name- less minstrel, Mary Scott is more than a mere poetic figure in the galaxy of Border song. As the wife of Harden's " marauding chief," how well did she play her part in the living history of the Border ! and was not a goodly portion of her indomitable spirit reproduced in the descendant who shed the most lasting lustre around the name of Scott ? Of the Kirk of St. Mary's, the scene of bridals and burials and so many tragedies untold, not a trace remains. Far up on the height it stood, commanding Yarrow and Ettrick 385 a magnificent prospect of the Loch and the bright serpentine bend of the Yarrow. Through the long Hng heather and thick bracken clumps is the only means of approach. Nothing is left but the little churchyard and a few mounds concealing, doubtless, earlier masonry of the once fair fane. A cluster of birk and rowan trees lends just a touch of softness to a scene inexpressibly drear and "dowie." A more secluded, shelterless sleeping-place it would be difficult to find. Yet no Yarrow student should miss a spot so unusually rich in legendary association. The situa- tion is about as perfect as one could wish. Romance rings it round, and the natural features are bold and beautiful. " What boon to lie, as now I lie, And see in silver at my feet Saint Mary's Lake, as if the sky Had fallen 'tween those hills so sweet, And this old churchyard on the hill, That keeps the green graves of the dead, So calm and sweet, so lone and still, And but the blue sky overhead.'" How exquisite the play of light and shade on the solemn bare hills, changing colour with every shifting cloud and every gleam of sunshine ! " Bowerhope's lonely top," in clear contour immediately opposite, seems to wear a double grace of symmetry, and of that earthly paradise at its foot one has a sort of sympathy with its whilom tenant, who declared, as the story 25 386 Scott Country goes, that he " could take a lease o't to a' eternity at a reasonable rent." Yonder, at the head of the Loch — surely its sweetest shrine — nestles the well-known COKBURNE hostelry, snug and homely, of the immortal Tibbie. The dark background of Riskinhope, the heights around Birk- hill and the Grey Mare's Tail, with the White Coomb Yarrow and Ettrick 387 and Bodsbeck in the distance, recall many a memory, literary and historic. Nearer hand, at the mouth of the ronuintic \ale of Megget, hunted b}- the Scottish THE DO\V GLEN AND LADV S SEAT. monarchs from Kenneth the Grim to Queen Mary, and haunted by the ghosts of the freebooters, is the wooded knoll which marks the site of Henderland Chapel. Here lie " Perys of Cokburne and hys wyfe 25—2 388 Scott Country Marjory." That most touching of ballads, the " Lament of the Border Widow,'" was long believed to be founded on the tradition which represents Cok- burne as summarily hanged over his own Tower gate. Historical research, however, has shown that on May i6, 1530, a noted reiver, William Cokburne of Henderland, was, in presence of King James V., at Edinburgh, convicted of high treason committed b}' him in seeking the aid of certain Englishmen for the plundering of a neighbour's property. His lands were forfeited and he himself beheaded. Still, it is con- ceivable enough for the ballad to be based on that incident, though just as likely is it associated with some other tragedy, possibly in the career of Perys and his spouse. The Dow Glen in the Henderland Burn, hard by, contains the Lady's Seat, where, according to Scott, who first published the ballad, " she is said to have striven to drown, amid the roar of a foaming cataract, the tumultuous noise which announced the close of her husband's existence." " But think na ye my heart was sair, When I laid the moul' on his yellow hair ? O think na ye my heart was wae, When I turn'd about, away to gae? *' Nae hvingman I'll love again. Since that my lovely knight is slain, Wi' ae lock o" his yellow hair I'll chain my heart for evermair." Yarrow and Ettrick 389 Meggetland, to use Pitscottic's designation, has dis- tinct charms of its own. Nature meets you here m some of her wildest moods, and, anon, does she clothe herself as with all a child's winsomeness. In the seven rugged miles between Henderland and Talla Linns a hundred hidden nooks open up for artist and angler alike, and the lateral glens are full of rich surprises. To Cramalt came Mary and poor Darnley in 1566. Its tumble-down Peel and Queen's Chair, whence she witnessed the jousting and sports of the hunting parties, are close to the farmhouse. These were the days alluded to in the Introduction to Canto II. of " Marmion " : " Of such proud huntings, many tales Yet linger in our lonely dales, Up pathless Ettrick and on Yarrow, Where erst the outlaw drew his arrow." But Time's rough marches have long since changed the face of royal Meggetdale, and the place-names alone keep the memory of its storied past. " The scenes are desert now, and l)are. Where flourish'd once a forest fair, When these waste glens with copse were lined, And peopled with the hart and hind." Such is the world of Romance that surrounds this sequestered kirk - nook of St. Mary's, " where the shepherds of Yarrow are sleeping'' side by side with 390 Scott Country friars and freebooters, Covenanters and "chiefs of ancient days," gallant knights, and luckless lovers. Of its history comparatively little is known. From about 1275, the earliest mention of it, until at least 1640, it comes to us under different names as the Forest Kirk, where, as some think, Wallace was chosen Warden of Scotland ; or St. Mary's of Farmainishope, an old name for the adjoining lands of Kirkstead ; or St. Mary of the Lowes; or the Kirk of Yarrow. In Canto II. of the "Lay" Scott describes its destruc- tion in June, 1557, during a feud between the Buccleuch Scotts, headed by the Lady Buccleuch herself, and the clan Cranstoun. Though partially restored and used for some half a century afterwards, it never regained its old importance. A new church was built further down the valley, and the ruins of St. Mary's gradually sunk to the ground. " For the Baron went on pilgrimage, And took with him this elvish Page, To Mary's Chapel of the Lowes ; For there, beside Our Ladye's Lake, An offering he had sworn to make. And he would pay his vows. But the Ladye of Branksome gathered a band Of the best that would ride at her command : The trysting -place was Newark Lea. Wat of Harden came thither amain, And thither came John of Thirlestane, And thither came William of Deloraine ; They were three hundred spears and three. Yarrow and Ettrick 391 Through Douglas lUirn, up Yarrow stream, Their horses prance, their lances gleam. They came to St. Mary's Lake ere day ; But the Chapel was void, and the Baron away. Tliey burned the Chapel for very rage, .\nd cursed Lord Cranstoun's Coblin-Fage." From its position it is not unlikely to have been a place of note in early Scottish story, and during the great ecclesiastical controversies is said to have been ST. MAKV S CHURCHVAKD. identified most of all with the Romish side. " A rich money - offering at the shrine of ' Our Lady ' was thought to be good atonement for rapine and blood- shed." Nor was it free from the frequent bickerings of the turbulent Border. Many a skirmish has this quiet hillside witnessed in the restless days bj'-gone, many a heroic struggle, many a foul deed foully done. But all is silence now. " It is long since the last Mass was sung here, and the light went out above the 392 Scott Country altar. Knight and monk and prior rode from the place for the last time into the darkness of oblivion three hundred years ago." Hogg's poem on the spot is one of the finest from his pen : " O lone St. Alary of the waves, In ruin lies thine ancient aisle, While o'er thy green and lowly graves, The moorcocks bay, and plovers wail : But mountain spirits on the gale. Oft o'er thee sound the requiem dread ; And warrior shades, and spectres pale, Still linger by the quiet dead." We are reminded, too, of the quaint folk-rhyme : " St. Mary's Loch lies shimmering still, But St. Mary's Kirk bell's lang dune ringing ; There's naething now but the gravestane hill To tell o' a' their loud psalm-singing." Poetry and tradition cling to this lone kirkyard as to no other. Here was the scene of the principal incident in the ballad of the " Gay Goss-Hawk," where a lover's touch wrought such wonders : " ' Set down, set down the bier,' he said, ' Let me her look upon ;' But as soon as Lord William touch'd her hand, Her colour began to come. '■ She brighten'd like the lily flower, Till her pale colour was gone ; With rosy cheek, and ruby lip, She smiled her love upon." Yarrow and Ettrick 393 From this ballad Hogi; took the idea of his exquisite poem of " Mary Scott," the concluding scene of which is also at St. Mary's Kirk ; and the lovers of the " Douglas Tragedy " are at rest somewhere beneath these shapeless mounds. " Lord William was buried in St. Mary's Kirk, Lady Marg'rct in Mary's quire ; Out o" the lady's grave grew a bonny red rose, And out o' the knight's a brier. " And they twa met, and they twa plat, And fain they wad be near ; And a' the world might ken right weel They were twa lovers dear." Yonder, " east from the kirk and holy ground," a small cairn — Binram's Corse — marks the grave of the unhappy priest — like Ambrosio in "The Monk" — com- memorated in Hogg's wild ballad of " Mess John " — " That Wizard Priest, whose bones are thrust From company of holy dust." A funeral at St. Mary's, we can well believe, has a strikingly weird effect : •• For though, in feudal strife, a foe Hath laid Our Lady's Chapel low, Yet still beneath the hallowed soil The peasant rests him from his toil, And, dying, bids his bones be laid, , Where erst his simple fathers pray'd." The few headstones proclaim the common names of the district — Anderson, Brydon, Grieve, Kerr, Laidlaw, Linton, Pringle, and Scott. Here lies Thomas Linton 394 Scott Country of Chapclhope, Boston's pious elder, whose death in 1718 vexed him much. " He had been," says Boston, " a notable sufferer in the time of persecution, and spoiled of all his goods ; but was become very wealthy ; and moreover he had a heart given him to do good with his wealth, and was very useful in the country that way. On him I bestowed this epitaph, which I suppose is to be found on his tombstone in Mary churchyard in Yarrow : " All lost for Christ, an hundredfold Produc'd, and he became A father, eyes, and feet unto The poor, the blind, the lame.'* And how man)- know that Hogg's early friend — his " more than brother," John Grieve, the inspirer of the " Queen's Wake," who sang as fourteenth Bard the ballad of " Mary Scott," and to whom " Mador of the Moor " was dedicated, sleeps on this deserted hill ? It is his family grave which figures prominently in the illustration. The son of the Rev. Walter Grieve, of Cacrabank, in Ettrick, a Cameronian divine, and Jean Ballantyne from the Craig-of- Douglas, he was born at Dunfermline, September 12,1781. Eminently success- ful as a hat-manufacturer, , a spinal affection totally incapacitated him for business during the last eighteen years of his life. Newington Cottage, his pleasant city * See " Memoirs of Thomas IJoston," Period X. Morrison's edition, 1899. Yarrow and Ettrick :^1)5 home, was, during that period, a favoured Hterary resort of the Capital, and there he died April 4, 1836. " He was," says the inscription on his tomb, " uni- versally esteemed and beloved, not more for the superiority of his understanding and his numerous attainments, than for the endearing cordiality of his manners, and the warm benevolence of his heart." Hogg had not a truer friend — " one whose affection neither misfortune nor imprudence could once shake," he himself confessed. A poet,* and generous literary patron, Grieve's best claim to remembrance rests in * The songs marked C. in tlie " Forest Minstrel" are by (".rieve. He wrote also a version of " l'ol\sartli-on-the-(".reen," and other lyrics. 396 Scott Country his care for Hog^^ during those dark, poverty-stricken days of i8ir, and the encouragement given to the despondent bard which bore such a bountiful harvest by the production of the Shepherd's masterpiece. St. Mary's Loch is the largest sheet of water in the South of Scotland — in circumference seven and a half miles, in length three miles, and at its broadest part, between Coppercleuch and Bowerhope, one mile. There was no excursion in which Scott more delighted. "A complete day's idleness" meant often a drive to Yarrow and St. Mary's. In the marvellous reflections on its slumbering surface, " rivalling almost the Nor- wegian Suldalsvand," he had full scope for that graphic and perfect word-picture in " Marmion " : " Oft in my mind such thoughts awake. By lone Saint Mary's silent lake ; Thou knowst it well — nor fen, nor sedge Pollute the pure lake's crystal edge ; Abrupt and sheer, the mountains sink At once upon the level brink ; And just a trace of silver sand Marks where the water meets the land. Far in the mirror, bright and blue, Each hill's huge outline you may view ; Shaggy with heath, but lonely bare, Nor tree, nor bush, nor brake is there. Save where, of land, yon slender line Bears thwart the lake the scatter'd pine, Yet even this nakedness has power, And aids the feeling of the hour ; Nor thicket, dell, nor copse you spy, Where living tiling conccaKd might lie : Yarrow and Ettrick 397 Nor point, retiring, hides a dell Where swain, or woodman lone, might dwell ; There's nothing left to fancy's guess, You sec that all is loneliness ; And silence aids — though the steej) hills Send to the lake a thousand rills ; In summer tide, so soft they weep, The sound but lulls ihe ear asleep ; Your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude. So stilly is the solitude." Across Megget Bridge at Meggetfoot, and on by the Lakeside, fir-fringed now, and opening up into new beauties, past the Rodono Hotel — Tibbie's rival — high-perched in its own birken shaw, and, facing familiar scenes, the white "effigy" of the "beloved Shepherd " on its " bonnie green knowe," as North's prophetic vision beheld it, and we turn in on the left to the picturesque isthmus where nestles cosily the most celebrated hostelry in Scotland. " Pilgrim, uncover ! as thou near'st these portals : Earth's bound contains no more endearing spot, For Wilson, Scott, and Hogg, Fame's first Immortals, Poured forth their lustrous genius in this cot." The place has altered somewhat within recent years. The flow of tourist life was never greater, and, as a result, some of the old conditions are swept aside. Tibbie's is a kind of meeting-place for the four dales of Yarrow, Ettrick, Tweed, and Moffat. Roads, with more or less of that " toilsome steepness " common to the Southern Highlands, wind from glen to glen, 398 Scott Country all finding their centre at this " cosy beild," this "wren's nest" as Hogg in the " Noctes " so happih- styles it. And in the long summer days the succes- sion of visitors by car and coach and cycle and "on the weary foot " is positively startling. " Nauseous enough," say they who seek an ideal rest in the midst of such memories as hundreds never dream of. J. B. Selkirk's lines find an echo in not a few hearts : " Warst change o' a' that's made ! Yarrow's sequester'd byeway, Oor ain romantic glade, Turn'd to a common highway. The noisy vulgar thrang, They've gliff'd awa' the fairies, Sin' a' the world maun gang And picnic at St. Mary's." Still, to one who can appreciate the spirit of the scene, an outing at St. Mary's is a remembrance not soon passed over. There is a setting other than the picturesque and the pleasurable which has its own appeal here as on all Yarrowside : "I see a sight ye cannot see, I hear a voice ye cannot hear." And one is glad to testify that Tibbie's, notwithstanding the increased demands, and its more commercial aspect, is not a whit behind in that kindl}' comfort and courtesy which characterized the place during the more famous tenancy of its foundress. A native of Ettrick, born in 1782, and at girl-service with the mother of the Ettrick Shepherd, Tibbie Shiel Yarrow and Ettrick 399 married, in 1813, Robert Richardson, a Westmoreland mole-catcher employed at Thirlestane. Their tirst home was a small rustic shieling at the head of the Loch of the Lowes. In 1823 they removed to the more celebrated cottage, newly built at the head of St. Mary's Loch. The }ear following Eichardson died, and Tibbie was left with six children. Her struggle must have been keen enough, though the Napier family were good friends during those clouded days. Robert Chambers was then collecting the Yarrow material for his "Picture of Scotland," and "put up" for a time at Tibbie's. He was her first guest. De- lighted beyond measure with the enchanting scenery of the district, and the kindness and attention of his 400 Scott Country hostess, he proffered the advice that she should throw her house open for summer visitors, anglers, etc., promising to commend it. In the " Picture," which was published in 1827, he wrote as follows: "There TIBBIE SHIEL. has lately been erected at the head of the Loch a small, neat house, kept by a decent shepherd's widow, who lets her spare room for any length of time at a small rent, and who can pro\ide her lodgers with as wholesome and agreeable country fare as may any- Yarrow and Ettrick 401 where be found. It is hardly possible to conceive any- thing more truly delightful than a week's ruralizing in this comfortable little mansion, with the means of so much amusement at the very doors, and so many interesting objects of sight and sentiment lying closely around." Such was practically the origin of the world-famous Tibbie Shiel's. Since then how many thousands have crossed its humble threshold ! After a widowhood of fifty-four years, Tibbie, who retained her maiden name to the last, died July 23, 1878, in her ninety-sixth year, respected and lamented by all. Her funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Russell at old St. Mary's.* And her grave is in green Ettrick beside the Shepherd's whose eyes she had herself closed more than forty 3'ears before. A glance at the Visitors' ]3ooks will give some idea — very imperfect, however — of the number and character of Tibbie's patrons. Hogg and Wilson are pre-eminent, of course. What scenes of revelry — nights and suppers of the gods — has this little parlour not witnessed ! The older part of the house is practically unchanged. There are the identical box-beds, of which so much has been heard, and many of Tibbie's lares ct pennies are still to the fore. One at least of the "Noctes" was laid here, in which the Shepherd, with rollicking Christopher and * An annual service, known as the " Blanket Preaching," is held here in July. Crowds gather from all parts, and the scene is singularly impressive, recalling an old-time conventicle. See article by J. B. Selkirk in Sco/sina/t, 1892. - 26 402 Scott Country the cautious Tickler, discuss everything in general and Tibbie's in particular, comparing it to a "wren's nest," an "ant-hill," and a "bee-hive" respectively. There they criticised in a "jaunty, jocose, and pleasant post- prandial way, men, books, events, Nature, philosophy, poetry, sport, manners, customs, grave and gay, grotesque and grand, tragedy and comedy — the trivial and great, sense and nonsense, all going into the same simmering dish — a literary Scottish haggis, ' warm- reekin', rich.' " " There they sat and drank and sang, Jolly boys well-matched together ; Scarcely may such chums be found Now in all our breadth of heather." Among other devotees at this shrine — an illustrious bede-roll — one thinks of Edward Irving walking from Kirkcaldy to Annan after the death of his first child in 1825 ; the student, Thomas Carlyle, tramping from Edinburgh to Ecclefechan ;* the courtly Edmond- * " He described to me once with extraordinary vividness his first sight of the Vale of Yarrow as he struck it in one of his walks to Annandale. It was a beautiful day, and he had come upon a height looking down upon the stony stream and its classic valley. .... The Yarrow songs were familiar to Carlyle ; and among the many scraps of old verse which he was fond of quoting or humming to himself in his later years I observed this in par- ticular : "' But Minstrel Burn cannot assuage His grief while life endureth, To see the changes of this age. Which fleeting time procu>eth ; Yarrow and Ettrick 403 stoune Aytoun ; Stoddart, " kinj; of angling rhymers " ; Glassford Bell, the genial sheriff; the ready-witted Russel of the Scutsjiuin ; Sir David Brewster ; divines like Chalmers, Guthrie, Hanna, Cairns, Caird, and Dean Stanley ; Professors Forbes, Ferrier, Lee, Flint, Knight, Lushington, the tuneful Shairp, the breezy Blackie, and "Berkeley" Fraser. Eliot Warburton dates his romance of " Darien " from Tibbie Shiel's. W. E. Gladstone was here in the early forties on his way to London during an election campaign, " Rab " Brown in 1850, Louis Stevenson in 1867, and many another, "gentle or semple," from every county in Scotland, from many in England, and from the British Dominions beyond the Seas. Here is just one of the many poetical compliments with which the books abound — by David Pae, the novelist, written in 1867 : " Oil, \\hat are all the pomp and pride Of feudal lords of high degree Compar'd with Tibbie's clean fireside And ingle bleezing bonnielie ? " Here Hogg and Wilson oft have been Fu' canty in this 'cosie beil,' And spent the gladsome hours I ween — A ' Noctes ' bright wi' Tibbie Shiel. For mony a place stands in hard case Where joy was wont beforrow, With Homes that dwelt on Leader braes, And Scotts that dwelt on Yarrow.' " —Professor Mas.sox. 26 — 2 404 Scott Country " Not Tweed's fair banks nor bonnie Doon, Nor Gala wi' its spinning-wheel. Nor Ettrick shaws, will rise aboon The Yarrow braes and Tibbie Shiel." St. Mary's and the Loch of the Lowes* seem to have originally formed one lake. " The difference of level," says Dr. Russell, is only fifteen inches, and the narrow neck of land which now separates them has been raised by the opposite currents of the Crosscleuch and Oxcleuch burns," The smaller loch, bleaker and less picturesque than its neighbour, is barely a mile in length, and not more than a mile and a half in circumference. Some of the boldest and wildest scenery in the South of Scotland lies beyond, amongst the sources of the Yarrow and the rugged mountainous Pass of Moffatdale. A country of the Covenant, specially rich in conventicle memories, is this rock-bound, solitary, silent, and " inhospitable wilderness," as Hogg styles it. Its cleuchs and corries are haunted with tales of the " killing times." Driven from their homes, and " hunted like the osprey's brood " by such men as Claverhouse, Grierson of Lag, Colonel James Douglas of Skirling, and others, the hiding-places of those "old heroes of the hill" lie all around, and spots still more sacred are pointed out where not a few were shot (jown — murdered — in cold blood, without trial, and * The name is prubably derived from the Anglo-Saxon hlawcs or /tftt/i— that is, hills. St. Mary's is, of course, from the Virgin. Yarrow and Ettrick 405 frequently on the merest blush of suspicion. There has not been a blacker and uglier page in Scottish annals, or, to be paradoxical, one more luminous with the light that never lay on sea or land. Hogg's " Brownie of Bodsbeck," one of the best Covenanting stories ever written, based partly on history and partly on tradition, is the classic of the district. Chapel- hope, at the western end of the Loch of the Lowes, shrines its chief incidents. Long tenanted by Hogg's forbears, the Laidlaws, many an " outed " minister or hillman was fed and sheltered here in those pitiless "iron days" of the Persecution. At Riskin- hope, almost opposite, Renwick, the " fair-faced boy," the last Scottish martyr, preached in February, 1688, shortly before his death in the Edinburgh Grass- market. " When he prayed that day," says the Ettrick Shepherd, " few of his hearers' cheeks were dry." "And hearts sublimed were round him in the wild, And faces God-ward turn'd in fervent prayer For the deep-smitten, suffering flock of Christ ; And clear uprose the plaintive moorland psalm, Heard high above the plover's wailing cry. From simple hearts in whom the spirit strong Of hills was consecrate by heavenly grace, ^ And firmly nerv'd to meet, whene'er it came, In His own time, the call to martyrdom." Professor Wilson's " Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life " embodies many traditions of the locality. In the 406 Scott Country whole range of Covenanting literature nothing equals for pathos his " C^)venanter's Marriage Day," a Chapel- hope episode, except, perhaps, the well-known story of Brown of Priesthill. Four miles on, by the Little Yarrow, and " Muckra's BIRKHILL barren brow," a singularly cheerless stretch brings us to Birkhill, the dividing-line between Selkirk and Dumfries. In the old days when never a soul dreamed of passing this ever-welcome hospice of the Moffat Alps, kindly " Jenny of Birkhill," the shepherd's wife, was as well-known as Tibbie Shiel herself and a figure Yarrow and Ettrick 407 quite as interesting. Once, it is said (the story will bear re-telling), a tramp, taking advantage of the loneliness of the place, pushed his way into the kitchen and attempted to make free with some of the good-wife's gear. Jenny, however, was determined to see fair play, and screwing her courage to the sticking-point, seized hold of an axe that lay near, questioning the intruder : " Did onybody see ye come in ?" " No," faltered the cowardly fellow. "Then," said she, " de'il a ane'll see 3'e gang oot." The scoundrel soon made himself scarce enough — empty-handed, Scott records a visit to Birkhill in August, 1826, on one of his Drumlanrig trips : " We ascended the Birkhill path, under the moist and misty influence of the genius loci. Never mind ; my companions were merry and I cheerful. Our luncheon eaten in the herd's cottage ; but the poor woman saddened me unawares, by asking for poor Charlotte, whom she had often seen there with me. She put me in mind that I had come twice over those hills and bogs with a wheeled-carriage before the road, now an excellent one, was made. I knew it was true, but, on my soul, looking where we must have gone, I could hardly believe I had been such a fool." And at an earlier date Skene of Rubislaw describes Sir Walter's affection for the district : " I need not tell you that St. Mary's Loch and the Loch of the Lowes were amongst the most favourite scene? of our ex. 408 Scott Country cursions, as his fondness for them continiied to his last days, and we have both visited them man}- times together." Of Dob's Linn,* close to Birkhill, savage and " awesome," the Grey Mare's Tail, and " dark Loch Skene," he writes : "One of our earliest expeditions was to visit the wild scenery of the mountainous tract above Moffat, including the cascade of the Grey Mare's Tail and the dark tarn called Loch Skene. In our ascent to the lake we got completely bewildered in the thick fog which generally envelops the rugged features of that lonely region ; and, as we were groping through the maze of bogs, the ground gave way, and down went horse and horsemen pell-mell into a slough of peaty mud and black water, out of which, entangled as we were with our plaids and floundering nags, it was no easy matter to get extricated. Indeed, unless we had prudently left our gallant steeds at a farmhouse below, and borrowed hill ponies for the * Dob's Linn recalls the old rhyme : " For Hab Dob and Davie Din Dang the deil ovvre Dob's Linn." Here Halbert Dobson and David Dun, two worthies of the Covenant, had their refuge in a cottage on the brink of the precipice, nearly 400 feet high. Hogg narrates the tradition of their vanquishing the Devil, who plagued them nightly. With a Bible and a rowan-tree staff, they succeeded, after a desperate encounter, in tumbling him over the rocks, but in falling, the Arch- Tormentor transformed himself into a " bunch of barkit skins " and escaped unhurt. The hill beyond the Linn is known as the "Watch Knowe" or " Covenanters' Look-out." The Grey Mare's Tail has a fall of over 300 feet, and Loch Skene, two miles from Birkhill, is nearly a mile long, and between a quarter and half a mile in breadth. For an admirable sketch of the district see " Birkhill, a Reminiscence," by A Liverpool Merchant ; Lewis : Selkirk, 1899. Yarrow and Ettrick 409 occasion, the result miylU ha\c been worse than laughable. As it was, we rose like the spirits of the bog, covered cap-a-pic witli slime, to free themselves from which, our wily ponies took to rolling about on the heather, and we had nothing for it but following their example. At length, as we approached the gloomy loch, a huge eagle heaved himself from the margin and rose right over us, screaming his scorn of the intruders ; and altogether it would be impossible to picture anything more desolately savage than the LOCH SKENE. scene which opened, as it raised by enchantment on purpose to gratify the poet's eye ; thick folds of fog rolling incessantly over the face of the inky waters, but rent asunder now in one direction, and then in another— so as to afford us a glimpse of some pro- jecting rock or naked point of land, or island bearing a few scraggy stumps of pine— and then closing again in universal darkness upon the cheerless waste. Much of the scenery of ' Old Mortality ' was (Iravvn from that day's ride," 410 Scott Country- Scott's party on the occasion was led by Hogg, who, recalling it afterwards, remarks: " I was disappointed in never seeing one incident in his subsequent works laid in a scene resembling the rugged solitudes around Loch Skene, for I never saw him survey any with so much attention. A single serious look at a scene generally filled his mind with it, and he seldom took another ; but here he took in all the names of the hills, their altitudes, and relative situations with regard to one another, and made me repeat them several times." But in the Introduction to Canto II. of " Marmion," as well as in the " Old Mortality" settings, Scott turned the excursion to excellent account in one of his finest word-paintings : " And my black Palmer's choice had been Some ruder and more savage scene, Like that which frowns round dark Loch Skene. There eagles scream from isle to shore ; Down all the rocks the torrents roar : O'er the black waves incessant driven, Dark mists infect the summer heaven ; Through the rude barriers of the lake Away its hurrying waters break, Faster and whiter dash and curl, Till down yon dark abyss they hurl. Rises the fog-smoke white as snow, Thunders the viewless stream below. Diving as if condemn'd to lave Some demon's subterranean cave. Who, prison'd by enchanter's spell, Shakes the dark rock with groan and yell. Yarrow and Ettrick 411 And well thai Palmer's form and mien Had suited with the stormy scene, GREY MARE S TAIL. Just on the edge, straining his ken To view the bottom of the den, Where, deep, deep down, and far within, Toils with the rocks the roaring linn ; 412 Scott Country Then issuing forth one foamy wave, And wlieehng round the Giant's Grave, White as the snowy charger's tail, Drives clown the pass of Moffatdale." Covenant memories, as has been said, haunt every glen and gully around Loch Skene and the Tail. The utter wildness and desolateness of the scene, the black, deep, treacherous morasses, and gloomy, unexplored caverns, with the dense, impenetrable mists that so fre- quently and suddenly hang over and envelop it, com- bined to make it a coveted sheltering-place for many a poor oppressed moss-hager. Since their days the region is probably unchanged — blighted as if in retribu- tion for the sorrows they endured among its cheerless wastes, and rendered a vast abiding monument, silent, yet awful in expressiveness — God's visible memorial of their deathless devotion. Our Yarrow pilgrimage is now ended— appropriately enough with Scott. His influence has been over us and around us all through. And here by this Border mountain-gate where the Mighty Minstrel has often stood, do we not catch up with a deeper and more per- sonal sympathy the feeling expressed in Wordsworth's touching apostrophe from '' Yarrow Revisited "' ? — " For Thou, upon a hundred streams, By tales of love and sorrow, Of faithful love, undaunted truth, Hast shed the power of Yarrow. Yarrow and Ettrick./ 413 '■ Flow on for ever, ^'ar^)w Stream ! Fulfil tliy pensive diit)-, Well pleased that future Bards should chant For simple hearts thy beauty ; To dream-light dear while yet unseen, Dear to the common sunshine ; And dearer still, as now I feel, To memory's shadowy moonshine I" From the Yarrow uplands over into the Ettrick valley, if it be summer, and you wear}' for the hills, take the old bridle -track by Kiskinhope Burn and Penistone Knowe to Scabcleuch, half a dozen miles of the Ettrick's wild moorland source. For driving, however, or cycling, though the route be none of the best, there is the regular highway, a " lang dreich road," very bare and mountainous. Past Tibbie's and Crosscleuch, how it twists and bends out and in and up and down between the dun hillsides ! The " pastoral melancholy " is supreme. A few sheep dotting the green knowes are almost the only signs of life. Still, as in most hill-country climbs, we are not uncon- scious of compensations here also. But having gained the summit, the tinkle of the Tushielaw Burn is in the ear, and descending its bosky glen, we are soon at the Ettrick turnpike, close to Tushielaw Inn, and about four miles from Ettrick Kirk. The Ettrick valley is larger and opens into a wider expanse than the Yarrow. Its scenery, especially in the upper reaches, is much more changeful and charming. If 414 Scott Country- it cannot boast the romantic renown of the sister parish, associations no less interesting and world-wide in their scope cluster around Ettrick side. While Yarrow has the chief scenes of Hogg's chequered career, it w^as Ettrick which gave him birth, and an imperishable name, and a grave. None loved Ettrick more than her Poet son : " As ilka year gae something new Addition to my mind or stature, So fast my love for Ettrick grew, Implanted in my very nature." " I've sung, in many a rustic lay, Her heroes, hills, and verdant groves ; Her wilds and valleys fresh and gay. Her shepherds' and her maidens' loves." And have not its sweet pastoral solitudes been conse- crated for all time by the story of that earlier Ettrick Shepherd, "the great, the grave, judicious" Boston, " Whose golden pen to future times will bear His fame, till in the clouds his Lord appear " ? Nor is Ettrick lacking in legendary lore. The romance of the ages lingers by its uplands. Still is it possible to roam " Far through the noonday solitude, By many a cairn and trenched mound. Where chiefs of yore sleep lone and sound, And springs, where grey-hair'd shepherds tell That still the fairies love to dwell." Yarrow and Ettrick 415 Apart from Hogg, too, there is a native-born minstrelsy in praise of the Forest and the " Ettrick Banks,"* dear to every lover of Border song. The Ettrick rises among a few rushes far up among the mountains bordering on Dumfriesshire, in the bold, storm- swept Capel Fell, 2,223 feet above sea -level. Flowing in a north-easterly direction past the stately ETTRICK PEN, Ettrick Pen, commanding from its summit an extensive sweep of both Borders, as far south as Skiddaw, the infant stream winds its way for many miles, like a thread of silver, through a dense mass of high bleak hills, until in the neighbourhood of Ettrick Kirk it begins to open out into a pleasant vale with stretches * See one of the oldest songs, " On Ettrick Banks ae simmer night," first puWished in Thomson's "Orpheus Caledonius," 1725. 416 Scott Country of luxuriant haugh-land and slopes of greenest pasture. What exhilaration one finds here — far from the stir and strife of the World-never-at-Rest, with Nature's wonder-lessons ever a delightsome study ! " How wild and harsh the moorland music floats When clamorous curlews scream with long-drawn notes, Or, faint and piteous, wailing plovers jiipe, Or, loud and louder still, the soaring snipe 1 And here the lonely lapwing whoops along, That piercing shrieks her still-repeated song. Flaps her blue wing, displays her pointed crest. And, cowering, lures the peasant from her nest. But if, where all her dappled treasure lies, He bend his steps, no more she round him flies ; Forlorn, despairing of a mother's skill. Silent and sad, she seeks the distant hill." Here are such place-names as Phawhope, redolent of the redoubtable " Will o' Phaup," Hogg's grand- father, the last man who saw and spoke to the fairies. He died when Hogg was only five, yet how well was the supernatural succession carried on by his daughter — the Shepherd's mother! Through Margaret'Laidlaw, most of all, Hogg heard the " horns of Elfland loudly ringing." But for her we might never have known the incomparable " Kilmeny " or the weird " Witch of Fife." Long ago, when the Border monks reared their great rehgious houses and evangelized in the far recesses of the hills, a little Chapel at Over-Kirkhope kept the true light burning in the Ettrick uplands. Shorthope and the sunny slopes of Lochy-Law are sacred to the Yarrow and Ettrick 417 Elfin race. Here Hogg laid the scene of " Old David," the third in point of merit of his Fairyland ballads. And for the memories dear which her name conjures up, it should not be forgotten that at Goose-green Head the light first shone on Tibbie Shiel — " Kindly hostess of St. Mary, Blithe and iDountiful, shrewd and good." Ettrick Kirk (see p. 346) and Manse, nestling at the foot of lofty green hills, " where they begin to draw^ together with increasing height and grandeur towards the valley-head," belted by clumps of birch and oak, with the swish of the Kirk Burn close by, make up an exceedingly pretty picture. Erected in 1822, and since restored, the Kirk is probably the fourth building on the same site. A succession of twenty ministers, according to Hew Scott's " Fasti," have served the cure since 1618, and it is curious to note that no fewer than six of these held office within ten years — 1781 to 1791. The most notable name in Ettrick ecclesiastical annals, wedded, like Hogg's, to the arena of his trials and triumphs, is that of Thomas Boston, " whose peaceful walk with God is not yet forgotten in Ettrick Forest, and whose writings, originally designed for his own shepherds, are now praised in all the churches, and most prized by those Christians who have farthest grown in grace." Born at Duns, March 17, 1676, a Covenanter's child, and early evincing a desire for the 27 418 Scott Country Christian ministry, Boston studied at Edinburgh, was licensed to preach in 1697, and ordained to Simprin in the Merse, September 21, i6gg. On May i, 1707 — the day of the Union of England and Scotland — he was translated to Ettrick, where he laboured till his death. May 20, 1732. Boston's Ettrick ministry opened amid clouds and tempest. It closed with a burst of song and in a golden sunset. A bitter estrangement between him and his people, for which he was in no way responsible, grieved him sorely. But by-and-by, as the stubborn Ettrickers began to recognise his worth, the breach was healed, and the pastor grew in favour both in and out of his parish. At his first Com- munion in 1710, some fifty-seven only were present. Twenty-one years afterwards, in celebrating the ordi- nance for the last time, 777 surrounded the sacred table. The Ettrick Sacrament was an event of the year in the Border country. From every dale in the four counties, and from far beyond, crowds poured into this remote upland parish. Latterly, Boston discoursed sitting in the pulpit, too weak to bear the strain of standing, and when unable even to walk to church, the congregation assembled outside the Manse, and the sermon was preached from one of the windows. The famous "Fourfold State" was given to the world in 1720. The "Crook in the Lot," and numerous Sermons, appeared after his death. The " Memoirs," published in 1776, is a deeply interesting and illuminating volume. Yarrow and Ettrick 419 As one of the twelve "Marrow" Men,* devoted to the doctrine of " the open door " set forth in Fisher's " Marrow of Modern Divinity," l^oston occupied a leading place in the evangelical movement of his time. The Assemblies of 1720-22 condemned the Marrow, and the ministers of the Church were strictly enjoined to warn their people against it. But the agita- tion fell flat and came to nothing. The Marrow triumphed, and is to-day the heritage of the whole Church of Christ. Boston was a man of warmest piety, a scholar — strong in the Hebrew points, a vigorous, terse writer, a literary stylist, indeed, whose works have long been among the most widely- read religious books of the Scottish people. Robert Chambers tells that in his young days at Peebles a common child's question was, " Who was the best man that ever lived?" to which the answer was, "Thomas Boston." And enthusiastic admirers were found who could say, " Give me the Bible and Boston, and you can take away every other book." Over his * Among the twelve were the following- Border divines : Thomas Boston, Ettrick ; Gabriel Wilson, IVIaxton (Boston's dearest friend), Henry Davidson, Galashiels; and William Hunter, Lilliesleaf. The Erskines were aLo of the number. 27 — 2 BOSTON S TOMBSTONE. -420 Scott Country tomb in the beautiful kirkyard of Ettrick — " a quiet, inviting resting-place, sheltered by the guardian hills from all but Heaven " — where often, on Communion days and others, he broke the bread of life to thou- sands sitting around, a pillared monument, erected in 1806, bears the following inscription :* "As a testimony of esteem for the Reverend Thomas Boston, senior, whose private character was highly respectable; whose public labours were blessed to many ; and whose valuable writings have contributed much to promote the advancement of vital Christianity, this monument (by the permission of relatives) is erected by a religious and grateful public." Boston was succeeded at Ettrick by his son, Thomas Boston the younger. Translated to Oxnam in 1748, he became minister of the Relief Congregation at Jedburgh, of which body, along with Gillespie of Carnock and others, he was a Founder and first Moderator of Presbytery. Not far from Boston's grave a simple stone (see p. 347) tells that Here lie the mortal remains of James Hogg, The Ettrick Shepherd, Who was born at Ettrick Hall in the year 1770, And died at Altrive Lake the 21^' day of November, 1835. This stone Is erected as a tribute of affection by his 'widow, Margaret Hogg. * Some relics of Boston's Ettrick ministry are preserved in the Manse in a large box made, as the inscription upon it says, " from the wood of the old ash tree at Tushielaw Tower, reputed by jjopular tradition to have been the duie tree of that place.'' They Yarrow and Ettrick 421 On one side is the burial-place of Hogg's grandfather and parents : Here lyeth William Laidlaw, The far-famed Will o' l^haup, Who for feats of Frolic, Agility, and Strength Had no Equal in his day ; He was born at Craik A.D. 1691, And died in the 84"' year of his age. Also Margaret, his eldest daughter. Spouse to Robert Hogg, and mother of The Ettrick Shepherd, Born at Old Over Phaup in 1730, And died in the 83"* year of her age. Also Robert Hogg, her husband. Late Tenant of Ettrick Hall, Born at Bowhill in 1729, And died in the 93"' year of his age And three of their Sons. On the other side rest Mrs. Hogg's father and mother. A few }'ards further over Tibbie Shiel sleeps her last long sleep. Ettrickhall and the new monument to Hogg, erected on his birth-spot, are within a few paces of the Church. " There first I saw the rising morn, There first my infant mind unfurled To ween that spot where I was born The very centre of the world." consist of tokens in use in Boston's lime ; the Session Records, written and signed by him in a clear business hand ; the Dead Bell referred to in the " Memoirs," with date 1715 ; a handle of his coffin, two very old and quaint ladles, and several sacramental vessels. Other relics are in the possession of descendants. His walking-stick is in Hawick Museum. 422 Scott Country In the humble cottage, long removed, Scott and the Shepherd met for the first time in the summer of 1802. Whilst at work one day in a field on his father's farm, word was brought to him that some gentlemen desired his immediate presence at Ramseycleuch. One of these was supposed to be the " Shirra " himself. The news pleased Hogg beyond measure. To forgather with the editor of the " Minstrelsy," the first two volumes of which he had seen, and had given material help for the third one forthcoming, was no ordinary event to the youthful enthusiast. " I accordingly flung down my hoe," he writes, "and hasted away home to put on my Sunday clothes ; but before reaching it, I met the * Shirra' and Mr. William Laidlaw coming to visit me. They alighted, and remained in our cottage a con- siderable time, perhaps nearly two hours, and we were friends on the very first exchange of sentiments. It could not be otherwise, for Scott had no duplicity about him ; he always said as he thought. My mother chanted the ballad of ' Auld Maitland ' to him, with which he was highly delighted." Scott was in his element, promising another visit. The Covenanter stones in the churchyard were examined on this occa- sion, and in the evening, at Ramseycleuch, Hogg dined with the " Shirra." Next day the party explored the lonely Rankleburn, with the sites of Buccleuch Kirk far up among the hills,* the Tower, the first real * Rankleburn, or Buccleuch, once a separate parish, was united to Ettrick in 1650. Yarrow and Ettrick 423 patrimony of the famous ducal house, and the deep ravine, where, as the legends tell, " Old Bucclcuch the name did yain When in the cleuch the buck was ta'en* Years afterwards, when Scott received his Baronetcy, Hogg recalled this first meeting, with its amusing antiquarian quests, in one of his most felicitous and touching tributes : " Ah ! could I dream when first we met, When by the scanty ingle set, Beyond the moors where curlews wheel. In Ettrick's bleakest, loneliest shiel, Conning old songs of other times, Most uncouth chants and crabbed rhymes — Could I e'er dream that wayward wight, Of roguish joke and heart so light, In whose oft-changing eye I gazed. Not without dread the head was crazed. Should e'er, by genius' force alone, Skim o'er an ocean sailed by none ; * The tradition is that Kenneth McAlpine, hunting in the royal Forest, started a buck at Ettrick-heuch and pursued it to the place now called Bucclcuch, about two miles from the junction of Rankleburn with the Ettrick. There the animal stood at bay, until John of Galloway, coming up, seized it by the horns, bearing it in triumph to the King. He thereupon received the surname of Scott of Buck-cleuch, and had conferred upon him the rangership of the Forest. " For the buck thou stoutly brought To us up that steep heuch, Thy designation ever shall Be John Scott of Buccleuch." 424 Scott Country All the hid shoals of envy miss, And gain such noble port as this ! * * * * + Yes, twenty years have come and fled Since we two met ; and Time has shed His riming honours o'er each brow — My state the same, how changed art thou ! But every year yet over-past I've loved thee dearer than the last. For all the volumes thou hast wrote, Those that are owned, and that are not, Let these be conned even to a grain, I've said it, and will say't again — Who knows thee but by these alone, The better half is still unknown. " Scott's excursions to Ettrick were not infrequent. Familiar with every landmark, its Keeps and Peels were of special interest. There is Thirlestane, the beaut}--spot of the vale, clad in such wealth of wood- land as Scott never saw. Hard by the modern mansion* is all that remains of the ancient stronghold, burned by Hertford in 1544. The old family, " long- descended " from the Scotts, the original owners, and from John Napier of Merchiston, of logarithms cele- brity, is still in possession. John Scott of Thirlestane, the only baron faithful to James V. at Fala in 1542 when * Among the treasures of Thirlestane are a portion of the clothes worn by Montrose at his execution : the linen napkin in which his heart was wrapped ; a rich satin cap of a faded straw colour, bordered with lace ; and a pair of knitted thread hose. The Napiers were active supporters of the Royalist cause, and were related to the Great Marquis. Many of the family have been distinguished as soldiers, diplomatists, law\ ers, and men of letters. Yarrow and Ettrick 425 the other nobles declined to acquiesce in his invasion of England, is introduced in Canto IV. of the " Lay ": " From fair St. Mary's silver wave, From dreary Gamescleuch's dusky height, His ready lances Thirlestane brave Arrayed Ijeneath a banner bright. The tressured fleur-de-luce he claims To wreathe his shield, since royal James, Encamped by Fala's mossy wave, The proud distinction grateful gave, For faith 'mid feudal jars ; What time, save Thirlestane alone, Of Sc. tland's stubborn barons none Would march to southern wars ; And hence, in fair remembrance worn, Yon sheaf of spears his crest has borne ; Hence his high motto shines revealed — ' Ready, aye ready,' for the field." Here Hogg placed his weird ballad " The Pedlar." Gamescleuch Tower, too, on the right bank of the stream, facing Thirlestane, is embalmed in the " Moun- tain Bard " ; and of Tushielaw, two miles on, " perched like a gled's nest against the craig above," how much might be said ! A vault-like fragment alone survives of this almost impregnable strength. No name struck terror to the heart of the Bordcrside like that of Adam Scott, the " King of Thieves," and the popular fiction, which makes him share the fate of his own gallows-tree,* would have been, in his case, but scantly * Accidentally burned a few years ago. Nothing but a charred stump now remains. 426 Scott Country poetic justice. He perished, however, at Edinburgh, May i8, 1530, within two days of Cokburne of Hender- land, and their heads were spiked together on the Tolbooth. Hogg's " Mary Scott," sung by Grieve in the " Wake," has its scene at Tushielaw, as also Charles Gibbon's rousing romance, the " Braes of Yarrow." Further on, Gilmanscleuch reminds us of Hogg's pretty ballad, so much admired by Scott and Southey,* in which the Shepherd recounts how the place fell to Wat of Harden in reparation for a slain son. The * "I have ever expected great things from you, since in 1805 I heard Waher Scott by his own fireside at Ashestiel repeat 'Gilmanscleuch.'" — Southey to Hogg, December, 1814. Yarrow and Ettrick 427 description of the old reiver locking his sons " in prison Strang" and hurrying off to Holyrood to seek an interview with the King and obtain a grant of the lands of Gilmanscleuch is full of picturesque touches : " An' he's awa' to Holyrood, Amang our nobles a', With bonnet lyke a girdel braid, An' hayre like Craighope snaw. " His coat was of the forest grene, Wi' buttons lyke the moon ; His breiks were o' the guid buckskyne, With a' the hayre aboon ; " His twa-hand sword hung round his neck, An' rattled at his heel ; The rowels of his silver spurs Were of the Ripon steel ; " His hose were braced wi' chains o' airn, An' round wi' tassels hung ; At ilka tramp o' Harden's heel The royal arches runj^. " Sae braid an' buirdlye was his bouke, His glance sae grufif to bide ; Whene'er his braid bonnette appearit, The menialis stepped aside. " The courtlye nobles of the north The chief with favour eyed, For Harden's form an' Harden's look Were hard to be denied." At Gilmanscleuch lived "daft Jock Grey," the proto- type of " Davie Gellatley " in " Waverley." Yonder 428 Scott Country are the Deloraines,* recalling the stout, heroic rider, William of Deloraine, with whose unearthly history every reader of the " Lay " is at once enthralled : " A stark moss-trooping Scott was he As e'er couched Border lance by knee." Henry Scott Kiddell, it is interesting to note, shep- herded for two years at Wester Deloraine, and Hogg's tender lyric, the " Bonnie Lass of Deloraine," was long a favourite in the Forest. At Singlie, a short distance down, Hogg served for a season. Near the head of the Dod Burn, up from Hyndhope, Scott was wont to locate that splendid specimen of the Border "riding" ballads, "Jamie Telfer." Manifestly, however, he is in error. The " fair Dodhead " is rather that near Penchrise, not far from Skelfhill, on the southern side of Teviot, within three miles of Stobs, where Telfer vainly seeks help from Elliot. Professor Veitch, too, argues for the Ettrick Dodhead, but the balance of evidence is in favour of the Teviotdale site. Soon we pass Ettrick Shaws ; Kirkhope glen, with * The name seems to be derived from the (iaehc dal-Orain — " Grain's Land." " Grain " is the name of a Celtic saint, and the local pronunciation is always Deloraine, never, as Scott rhymed it, with the accent on the last syllable — " I'd give the lands of Deloraine, Dark Musgrave were alive again." Others find the origin in the fact that James II. gave his Queen the Forest of Ettrick as pait of her dowrj'; hence, say they, the name, de la rente. Yarrow and Ettrick 429 its well-preserved Peel ; the picturesque Liuns and " Loup " of Newhouse, a favourite Scott pilgrimage, visited by hnn in 1831 before setting out for Italy; the pretty little village of Ettrickbridgend, with Kirkhope Parish Church, built in 1839; the clean, trig feus of Brockhill ; P^iuldshope, farmed for ages by the " hardy Hoggs," progenitors of the Ettrick Shepherd ; and then Oakwood is reached, the best-conditioned of the Selkirkshire towers — " indeed, it is questionable if there is another old tosver in the whole South of Scotland equal to it in this respect." A constant but erroneous tradition, arising, no doubt, from the fact that another of the same name possessed the place, associates Oak- wood with the Wizard Michael Scot. Sir Walter seems to have been the first, in the "Lay," to give publicity to this old legend. But the story is utterly impossible. Michael Scot flourished during the thirteenth century, whilst Oakwood was not built until the beginning of the seventeenth, the date of its erection by Robert Scott in 1602 being inserted above a window in the east wall. Oakwood is still owned by the descendant of the noted Wat of Harden, who afterwards held the barony : " Wide lay his lands round Oakwood Tower, And wide round haunted Castle- Ower; High over Boithwick's mountain flood His wood-embosomed mansion stood ; In the dark glen, so deep below, The herds (jf ])lundcred England low : 430 Scott Country His bold retainers' daily food, And bought with danger, blows, and blood. Marauding chief! his sole delight The moonlight raid, the morning fight. Not even the Flower of Yarrow's charms, In youth, might tame his rage for arms ; And still, in age, he spurned at rest, And still his brows the helmet pressed, Albeit the blanched locks below Were white as D inlay's spotless snow. --.-... m 9 PH^H^ ^ ^^M ^M ^^^^H ■ W ^^Sl ^^H^s^B^^^^H I f-^^X j|||hHBb ■ jIBIjLj. ■■-;, ; . 49|HS B H^''9 1^^ ^9^9|HH :-^=?=,-: .•^^^'^■■W S ^■^B ^^ ^^i* ^•-wi?i.^.-»;^>^^^,^:s ■---<■- .-5 -1 H ^^^^1 Five stately warriors drew the sword Before their father's band ; A braver knight than Harden's lord Ne'er belted on a brand." Below Oakwood a short distance we come to Bow- hill, at the base of Black Andro, the Forest home of the bold Buccleuch, a princely dwelling in the Italian style, girt by gorgeous plantations, its grounds of the Yarrow and Ettrick 431 most picturesque description— the whole estate, indeed, so arranged for the comfort of all concerned as to render it, perhaps, the ideal baronial residence in the South of Scotland. Scott's lines in the " Lay " are well known : " So pass'd the winter's day ; l)Ut still, When summer smiled on sweet Bowhill, And July's eve, with balmy breath, Waved the bluebells on Newark heath ; When throstles sung in Harehead-shaw, And corn was green on Carterhaugh, And flourish'd, broad, Blackandro's oak, The aged Harper's soul awoke !" CARTERHAUGH. Carterhaugh, close by, on the tongue of land at the junction of the Yarrow and Ettrick, is the scene of the celebrated fairy ballad of " The Young Tamlane." Scott prefaced his " Minstrelsy " version by an elaborate 432 Scott Country Introduction full of the lore of Fairyland. The tale is as old as the middle of the sixteenth century, and is mentioned in the " Complaynt of Scotland " in 1549. Several versions are met with. Burns, in 1792, con- tributed to Johnson's " Museum " a copy in some respects finer than Scott's. " Tamlane's Well," where Janet met her lover and drew from him the secret of deliver- ance from the elfin charms, is still to be seen. So great was her devotion that, notwithstanding the weirdest transmutations as she held him fast, his release was finally effected : " Gloomy, gloomy was the night, And eiry was the way, As fair Janet in her green mantle To Miles Cross she did gae. " The heavens were black, the night was dark, And dreary was the place ; But Janet stood, with eager wish, Her lover to embrace. " About the dead hour o' the night She heard the bridles ring ; And Janet was as glad o' that As any earthly thing. " And first gaed by the black, black steed, And then gaed by the brown ; But fast she gript the milk-white steed, And pu'd the rider down. " She pu'd him frae the milk-white steed, And loot the bridle fa' ; And up there raise an erlish cry — ' He's won among us a" !' ***** Yarrow and Ettrick 433 " Up then si)akc llie Queen o' Fairies, Out o' a bush o' rye — ' She's ta'en awa' the bonniest knight In a' my companie.'" Scott's song entitled "On the Lifting of the 'Banner of the House of Buccleuch," written in 1815 and pub- lished in 1826, with music, in George Thomson's collection, has its scene at Carterhaugh. The chorus is patriotic enough : "Then up with tlie lianner, let Forest winds fan her, She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more ; In sport we'll attend her, in battle defend her. With heart and with hand, like our fathers before." Hogg has some stanzas celebrating the same occa- sion — a great football match between the men of Selkirk and Yarrow, at which nearly all the neigh- bouring nobility and gentry were present, with the " Shirra," the Shepherd, and " Master Walter Scott, younger, of Abbotsford, who attended suitably mounted and armed," bearing the ancient Banner of the Buc- cleuch family, unfurled for the first time since the funeral pageant of Earl Walter in 1633. Lockhart describes the scene somewhat minutely in vol. v. of the *' Life."' Mary Lee of Carelha', an old name for Carterhaugh, was the heroine of Hogg's " Pilgrims of the Sun " : " But ncer by Yarrow's sunny braes, Nor Ettrick's green and wizard shaw. Did ever maid so lovely won As Mary Lee of Carelha'." 28 434 Scott Country A mile or two further, past the richly picturesque grounds of Haining, and the Forest Capital is again reached. Fitly may we recall J. B. Selkirk's lines : " Four hundred years ago, this lovely morn, Fair Ettrick Forest, in her sylvan prime, Lay basking in the sunny summer clime. Here where I stand, among the ripen'd corn. One might have heard the royal bugle horn, Or some bluff hunter-poet of the time Chanting aloud his latest ballad rhyme Of hero done to death, or maid forlorn. " The Forest's gone ! the world's improved since then ! A forest now of chimneys, Babel-high, Belch out their blackened breath against the sky. Take off your hats to Progress, gentlemen ! So runs the world ; but as for me— heigh-ho ! I should have lived four hundred years ago." CHAPTER XVIII THE EAST BORDER — " MARMION " AND FLODDEN Of Scott's verse -romances, " Marmion : a Tale of Flodden Field " holds the second place in popularity. Begun in November, 1806, and published February 23, 1808, the poem proved at once an immense success. Before a line of it had been penned Constable paid a thousand guineas for the copyright, and during the author's life at least 50,000 copies were sold. Much of it was written on the Shirra's Knowe, and thought out in the saddle whilst galloping among the green braes of Ashestiel ; and many of the more energetic passages, particularly the description of Flodden Field, were composed amid the clatter of arms, in cavalry quarters at Portobello. The poem opens about the beginning of August, and concludes with the defeat of Flodden, September 9, 1513. During his youth at Kelso, Scott had made himself familiar with the Flodden district and with every detail of the battle. Long had he brooded over its fateful memory, and the result was this most stirring and vivacious of his poetical productions. As 28—2 436 Scott Country indelibly as on the soberer page of the historian does "Marmion" shrine that dark, grief-bound day Of the stern strife and carnage drear Of Flodden's fatal field, Where shiver'd was fair Scotland's spear, And broken was her shield." A day at Flodden — the Homeric passages of "Marmion" perused on the field itself — forms a Scott-Country excursion unusually rich in charm of story and scenery. Perhaps the most convenient starting-point is from Coldstream — " gude Ca'stream toun " — pleasantly situated on the left bank of the broad, bending Tweed, spanned by Smeaton's noble tive-arched bridge, erected in 1763-66. Here some fine riverside effects quicken our sense of the picturesque, and the district is laden with memories the most romantic. From its proximity to the Border, Cold- stream early played a prominent part in Scottish history. It was the nearest Scottish town to Norham Castle, the great frowning fortress of the East Border, and the ford at Coldstream, the first above Berwick of any consequence, was the chief crossing-place between the two countries. Toward the close of David I.'s reign, or early in that of Malcolm the Maiden, about 1 165, Cospatric of Dunbar and his pious Countess, Derder, founded the wealthy Cistercian Priory of Coldstream, inhabited by a colony of nuns from V The East Border 487 Witehou,* and for at least four centuries the convent was a flourishing rehgious centre. Throughout a wide circle, embracing almost the whole of Berwickshire and far into Northumberland, the evangel of the Cross was carried forward conquering and to conquer. Churches and conventual establishments arose here and there, and continued for long their Christianizing and civi- lizing work. Lennel, in the immediate neighbourhood * Witehou is quite unknown. The name lias been associated with Withovv and Whiston in England, but the likelihood is that this was the original description of the locality where the Priory stood. In the Confirmatory Charter the gift is assigned to the "holy sisters of Witehou, serving God in that place." 438 Scott Country — the ancient name of the parish, indeed, until 1716 — was probably the first of these. Here Marmion rested on the eve of the Battle of Flodden, and around its "one frail arch" the dead are still laid to rest — a hallowed, singularly sweet nook by the smiling banks of the Tweed. At the Hirsel, at Birgham, Eccles, Hutton, Swinton, and other neighbouring places, the nuns held grants of land and dependent chapels. The Hirsel, about a mile to the north-west of Coldstream, is now the beautiful seat of the Earl of Home. Its church or chapel disappeared prior to 1627, and no trace of it can be found. Birgham, on the highway between Kelso and Coldstream, three and a half miles from the latter town, is a place of considerable antiquity. Here, in 1188, William the Lion and his nobles met in conference with the Bishop of Durham and the envo}s of Henry H. of England, to resist the attempted supremacy of the English Church over the Scottish. In 1289 a Convention of the Scottish Estates met at Birgham to consider the proposed marriage of the Maid of Norwa}' with Prince Edward of England, and in July, i2go, there was signed the "Treaty of Birgham," securing the practical independence of Scotland. At Eccles, a very ancient Merse village, the remains of St. Mary's Nunnery, burned by Hert- ford in 1545, are still to be seen. Henry Home, Lord Kames, distinguished judge and philosopher, was a native of this parish. Hutton is supposed to have The East Border 480 been the camping-ground of the army of Edward I. in 1296, on the day before the capture of Berwick. Philip Ridpath, editor of the "Border History of England and Scotland," written by his brother George, minister of Stichill,* was minister of Button from 1759 to 1788. Swinton is identified with the ancient and honourable family of that name, who are said to have acquired the lands held by them for upwards of 750 years as a reward for clearing the country of wild boars or swine. Sir Alan Swinton, who died about the year 1200, is assumed by Sir Walter Scott as the hero of Halidon Hill.+ A cast of his skull occupied a pro- minent niche in the Abbotsford armoury. Sir Walter's maternal grandmother was Jean, elder daughter of Sir John Swinton, and first wife of Professor John Ruther- ford. Simprin, united to Swinton parish in 1761, was the scene of Thomas Boston's ministry from 1699 till his translation to Ettrick in 1707. The Priory of Coldstream has long since disappeared. It stood a little to the east of the present market-place, near the famous ford at the junction of the Leet and Tweed. The street or lane leading to its site is still called the Abbey Lane. Like the other religious houses of the Border, it suffered much during the * This " History" was published posthumously in 1776, and has since been re-issued. George Ridpath was born in Ladykirk Manse in 1717. t See his drama of " Halidon Hill' 440 Scott Country The East Border 441 international struggle, and was linally demolished in Hertford's fiery onslaught of 1545. A stone coffin and a quantity of human bones, believed to be those of the noble dead from Flodden, were dug up in 1834 from its long-disused burial-ground, and its ancient Pomarium is represented by a large and beautiful orchard to the south-east of the town. But Coldstream has other memories. There is the ford, just mentioned, by which Edward I. entered Scotland in 1296, and used by army after army, both English and Scottish, for purposes of invasion, down to 1640, when Montrose led the Covenanters southwards. Sir Walter thus describes the passing of Lord Marmion and his followers : " Then on that dangerous ford, and deep, Where to the Tweed Leet's eddies creep. He ventured desperately ; And not a moment will he bide Till squire, or groom, before him ride ; Headmost of all he stems the tide, And stems it gallantly. Eustace held Clare upon her horse. Old Hubert held her rein, Stoutly they braved the current's course, And, though far downward driven perforce. The southern bank they gain ; Behind them, straggling, came to shore, As best they might, the train : Each o'er his head his yew-bow bore, A caution not in vain ; Deep need that day that every string, 15y wet unharm'd, should sharply ring. 442 Scott Country A moment then Lord Marmion stayed, And breathed his steed, his men anay'd, Then forward moved his band, Until, Lord Surrej^s rear-guard won, Pie halted by a cross of stone, That, on a hillock standing lone, Did all the field command." And we can scarcely forget the romance that cHngs to the Bridge of Coldstream. As the Gretna Green of the East Border, the place is notorious in matrimonial annals. The old toll-house, once an inn, on the Scot- tish side, is still to the fore, where thousands of run- away couples and others pledged eternal troth in the barest and briefest possible ceremony, generally only in the presence of the proverbial blacksmith " priest," or miller, tailor, shoemaker, as he chanced to be. Nothing was then more frequent than the evasion of the marriage laws, and until Parliament passed the prohibitory statute of 1856 Coldstream was one of the most popular, as it was one of the easiest, shrines for the infatuated and by no means particular votaries of Hymen. Lord Brougham is stated to have been married here in 1819, but the ceremony — in clandestine fashion certainly — was celebrated, not at the Bridge, but at an inn of the town. Other Lords of the Wool- sack seem to have followed his example, though not at Coldstream, as is commonly supposed. Lord Eldon was wedded at Blackshiel, and Lord Erskine at Gretna Green. The East Border 443 It was just about here— at the Enghsh side of the Bridge, however— that Robert Burns on May 7, 1787, finding himself for the first time on southern soil, threw off his hat, and, kneeling down, repeated with much emotion the sublimely poetic prayer with which he closes the "Cotter's Saturday Night," lines that stamp him as a patriot of the first order. His Cold- stream visit is thus diarized : " Coldstream— went over to England — Cornhill — glorious river Tweed — clear and majestic— fine bridge. Dine at Coldstream with Mr. Ainslie and Mr. Foreman — beat Mr. F. in a dispute about Voltaire. Tea at Lennel House with Mr. Bry- done — my reception extremely flattering — sleep at Coldstream." This was Patrick Brydone, son of the minister of Coldingham, and born there in 1741. His "Tour through Sicily and Malta" was a well-known book in its day. Lennel House was his residence, where he died in 1818. His grave is in Lennel churchyard. His wife was the eldest daughter of Principal Robertson, the historian, and his own eldest daughter became Coun- tess of Minto. He is thus introduced into the lines of " Marmion," descriptive of the hero's halt at Lennel's convent : " Stung with these thoughts, he urged to speed His troop, and reach'd, at eve, the Tweed, Where Lennel's convent closed their march : There now is left but one frail arch, Yet mourn thou not its cells ; 444 Scott Country Our time a fair exchange has made ; Hard by, in hospitable shade, A reverend pilgrim dwells, Well worth the whole Bernardine brood. That e'er wore sandal, frock, or hood." Here, too, at Coldstream, General Monk raised the famous regiment of Foot Guards — the Coldstreams — with which he obtained so man\- triumphs and the restoration of Charles II. to the throne. The house where Monk spent the winter of 1659 — or, rather, its successor on the same site — stands to the east of the market-place, showing the inscription, " Head- quarters of the Coldstream Guards, 1659 5 rebuilt 1865." The oldest but one of our British regiments, few have surpassed it in heroic history. In deeds that won the Empire the Coldstreams have been always at the front. None have more worthily or more willingly accepted a full share in maintaining the honour and integrity of the nation. With a glance at the Marjoribanks monuments — to Sir John of Lees, a local benefactor, and Charles, a popular M.P. of the Reform period — we cross the Bridge, and are immediately on the English Border. A mile or so brings us to Cornhill and Coldstream station. At once we know we are in England. There is the unmistakable " burr " common to every native of Corn- hill. No Coldstream native has it, and, more singular still, no native of W'ark, on the Northumbrian side also, The East Border 445 some two miles up the river. Henry Erskine, father of the Erskines, ejected by the Nonconformity Act of 1662, was the last Presbyterian incumbent of Cornhill. Moneylaws, where he afterwards ministered from 1685 to 1687, and where Ralph was born, whose " silver tongue did living truth impart," lies a short distance off. William Howitt describes Wark as the " most peaceful of agricultural hamlets." Of its once proud Castle, close to the Tweed, crowning the Kaim of Wark — a relic of the Drift Period — not a trace remains. A solitary flagstaff marks its site, and the inscription on a strong sweet spring hard by reminds us that here, about IJ44, according to the oft-told tradition, King 446 Scott Country Edward III. instituted the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Joan, Countess of Sahsbur}-, wife of the cas- tellan, dropped her garter while dancing with the King, who, picking it up, fastened it round his leg ; but, per- ceiving his Queen's jealous glances, returned it to its embarrassed owner with the remark, Honi soit qui mal y pense — " Dishonoured be he who thinks ill of it." The Castle, lying directly on the Border line, played a not inconspicuous part in the old, wild days of inter- national jealousy and struggle. Around it mighty armies have mustered. Brave warriors have scaled its battle- ments. Many a rough cannonade has it borne from Scots and English alike. And what stirring pageants and deeds of chivalry have been witnessed within its embrasured walls ! Here Bishop Percy represents his hero Bertram to have been conveyed after the disastrous proof of his lady's " helm " : " All pale, extended on their shields, And weltering in his gore, Lord Percy's knights their bleeding friend To Wark's fair Castle bore." But the " unutterable silence of forsakenness " has long claimed the spot : " The nettles rank Are seeding on thy wild-flower bank ; The hemlock and the dock declare In rankness dark their mastery there; And all around thee speaks the sway Of desolation and decay. The East Border 447 Extinguish'd Ion;; hath been the strife Within thy courts of human Ufe, And all about thee wears a }(loom Of something sterner than the tomb." The little cluster of thatched cottages that cling to the base of the green mound, crumbling and fast- fading, too, as the years go by, accords well with the spirit of the scene. Nature alone is the unalterable element— Tweed and the distant hills abiding the same through all the centuries : " Thou wert the work of man, and so hast pass'd Like those who piled thee ; but the features still Of steadfast Nature all unchanged remain ; Still Cheviot listens to the northern blast, And the blue Tweed winds murmuring round thy hill ; While Carham whispers of the slaughtei-'d Dane.''* The chief attraction of the district, however, is the Field of Flodden, some five miles along the Wooler Road from Coldstream station. The way lies through a well- wooded and cultivated countryside, rising gradually from the banks of the Tweed. Crossing the Pallins- burn,t near the mansion of that name, that ran, as is said of many another burn, three days red after the battle, we come within sight of Flodden Hill, no longer a bare * See Delta's "Sonnet on Wark Castle." At Carham Church, in which parish Wark is situated, Moir was married in June, 1829. Carham was the scene of a great and decisive defeat of the Danes by the Northumbrian Sa.xons. t Said to be derived from Paulinas, a Northumbrian preacher, who baptized here large numbers of converts. 448 Scott Country bald height as in the time b}'-past, but flanked and crowned with wealth of graceful greenwood : " Nature with the robes of June Had clothed the slopes of Flodden Hill, As rode we slowly o'er the plain, 'Mid wayside flowers and sprouting grain, The leaves on every bough seem'd sleeping, And wild bees murmur'd in their mirth So pleasantly, it seem'd as Earth A jubilee were keeping." FLODDEN FIELD, Every student of Scottisli history and of Sir Walter is familiar with the circumstances of the fight. Begun in a spirit of bravado and knight-errantry, and culmin- ating in utter rout to the Scots, the story of Flodden has been graven deep on the great heart of the nation — deeper, perhaps, than any other of her battles, not even excepting Bannockburn. No vexed questions The East Border 449 were involved in it, and the political results were insignificant. Yet by its very failure, and the profound melancholy of its setting, it touched and fired the imagination to a degree unknown in mightier issues. Bannockburn struck the keynote of freedom, but the paeans in its praise are comparatively meagre. More song and ballad lore, it is affirmed, has gathered about Flodden than any battle since the days of Homer. It is, indeed, probable that in this clear verse-chronicle of the people more than through any dull historical data its memory has taken a larger and firmer hold of the Scottish sentiment : " Tradition, legend, tune and song Shall many an age that wail prolong." So long as the " Flowers of the Forest '" continues to charm with its plaintive melody, or Aytoun's and J. B. Selkirk's ballads remain to be read by admiring multitudes, the remembrance of Flodden will be upper- most in the martial annals of Scotland. And so long, too, as " Marmion " stirs the soul with its flashing description of this deadliest of all disasters, with its sustained and lofty movements, and the pathetic pictures that appear toward the close of the poem, Flodden will be a great rallying landmark for centuries yet unborn. It is unnecessary to detail the causes which led to the invasion of England on the part of James IV, 29 450 Scott Country against his brother-in-law, Henry VIII., then at war with France, Scotland's ancient ally. The attempt was pre-eminently foolish and reckless, and its penalty dear enough in all conscience. But it taught both kingdoms a wholesome and much-needed lesson. When the King had issued his summons to all who were of fighting age, a wave of extraordinary enthusiasm spread over the country. Within three short weeks he found himself at the head of 100,000 men, met on the Borough Muir of Edinburgh, equipped and provisioned for forty days, and prepared to follow him wherever Fate listed. Never before or since had such an army assembled on Scottish soil — the finest, most united, most loyal that yet had " bent to War's emprise." And when it marched out by way of Soutra Hill, down the Leader to Earlston for Tweedside and the Border, the whole neighbourhood for miles around turned out to view the inspiring spectacle. On Sunday, August 21, they reached Coldstream, and encamped on the Lees Haugh overnight. The next ten days or so w'ere spent harrying the enemy's territory, laying siege to the grim old strongholds of Norham, Wark, Etal, and Ford, and occupying and entrenching themselves in an impregnable position on the brown slope of Flodden spur. Meanwhile, Lord Surrey, England's most capable commander, was speeding northwards with a force of something like 38,000 men. By Sep- tember 8, the day preceding that fixed for the fight, in The East Border 451 answer to his challenge to the Scots King, he lay at Barmoor Wood, four miles due east from where James's " White pavilions made a show Like remnants of the winter snow Along the dusky ridge." Next morning, by a clever flanking manoeuvre, Surrey managed to completely outwit the Scots. Sending one TWIZEL BRIDGE. section of his army — the heavier portion — westwards across the sluggish Till at Twizel Bridge, while the main body forded the river, some say at Milford, but the best authorities at Sandyford, two or three miles further up the stream, he found himself upon the long sloping Moor of Branxton, close to the little Northum- 29 — 2 452 Scott Country berland village, facing the Scots, and between them and their own country : " From Flodden ridge The Scots beheld the English host Leave Barmoor Wood, their evening post, And heedful watch'd them as they cross'd The Till by Twizel Bridge. ' High sight it is, and haughty, while They dive into the deep defile ; Beneath the cavern'd cliff they fall, Beneath the castle's airy wall. By rock, by oak, by hawthorn-tree. Troop after troop are disappearing ; Troop after troop their banners rearing. Upon the eastern bank you see. Still pouring down the rocky den, Where flows the sullen Till, And rising from the dim -wood glen, Standards on standards, men on men. In slow succession still. And, sweeping o'er the Gothic arch. And pressing on, in ceaseless march. To gain the opposing hill. That morn, to many a trumpet clang, Twizel ! thy rocks' deep echo rang ; And many a chief of birth and rank. Saint Helen : at thy fountain drank. Thy hawthorn glade, which now we see In springtide bloom so lavishly, Had then from many an axe its doom. To give the marching columns room." It was a fatal movement for James and his gallants. From Flodden's " airy brow " he had beheld that gleaming phalanx defile onwards by Till's rush-bound The East Border 453 side, and lifted never a gun against them. And harshly did he answer those who ventured advice : " What checks the fiery soul of James ? Why sits that champion of the dames Inactive on his steed, And sees, between him and his land. Between him and Tweed's southern strand, His host Lord Surrey lead ? What 'vails the vain knight-errant's brand ? O, Douglas, for thy leading wand ! Fierce Randolph, for thy speed ! O for one hour of Wallace wight. Or well-skill'd Bruce, to rule the fight. And cry — ' Saint Andrew and our right !' Another sight had seen that morn From Fate's dark book a leaf been torn, And Flodden had been Bannockburn ! The precious hour has pass'd in vain, And England's host has gained the plain ; Wheeling their march, and circling still. Around the base of Flodden Hill." But at last, when the real meaning of Surrey's tactics flashed upon him, with a wild command the camp was fired, and James's magnificent following, dwindled sore indeed by many a desertion, descended the hill-slope into the same hollow where the English waited for the fray : " ' But see ! look up I on Flodden bent, The Scottish foe has fired his tent ' ; And, sudden as he spoke, From the sharp ridges of the hill. All downward to the banks of Till, Was wreathed in sable smoke. 454 Scott Country \'^olumed and vast, and rolling far, The cloud enveloped Scotland's war, As down the hill they broke ; Nor martial shout, nor minstrel tone, Announced their march ; their tread alone, At times one warning trumpet blown, At times a stifled hum. Told England from his mountain-throne King James did rushing come." Not, however, until four o'clock in the afternoon — late in the day for a great battle in the month of September — did the onrush begin in earnest. And for four terrible hours its mad career swept on, until gloaming gathered in the glen and the thick, black pall of night overcast the whole landscape, rendering it impossible to distinguish friend from foe. " Marmion "" transcends all prose descriptions : " And, first, the ridge of mingled spears Above the brightening cloud appears ; And in the smoke the pennons flew, As in the storm the white sea-mew. Then mark'd they, dashing broad and far, The broken billows of the war ; And plumed crests of chieftains brave, Floating like foam upon the wave. But nought distinct they see. Wide raged the battle on the plain ; Spears shook, and falchions flash'd amain, Fell England's arrow-flight like rain ; Crests rose, and stoop'd, and rose again, Wild and disorderly. Amid the scene of tumult, high They saw Lord Marmion's falcon fly ; The East Border 455 And stainless Tunstall's Ijanncr white, And Edmund Howard's lion bright, Still bear them bravely in the fight, Although against them come Of gallant Gordons many a one, And many a stubborn Badenoch-man, And many a rugged Border clan With Huntly and with Home." And around the Soldier- Kins: — a warrior true as steel foot-soldier, with his nobles hedging him in, " more desperate grew the strife of death ": " The English shafts in volleys hail'd, In headlong charge their horse assail'd ; Front, flank, and rear, the squadrons sweep To break the Scottish circle deep, That fought around their King. But yet, though thick the shafts as snow. Though charging knights like whirlwinds go, Though bill-men ply the ghastly blow, Unbroken was the ring. The stubborn spearmen still made good Their dark impenetrable wood. Each stepping where his comrade stood The instant that he fell. No thought was there of dastard flight ; Link'd in the serried phalanx tight. Groom fought like noble, squire like knight, As fearlessly and well, Till utter darkness closed her wing O'er their thin host and wounded King. Then skilful Surrey's sage commands Led back from strife his shatter'd bands, And from the charge they drew. As mountain-waves from wasted lands Sweep back to ocean blue." 456 Scott Country Both armies kept the field during the night, unable to tell with which side was the victory. But at day- dawn the truth was sadly apparent : " There, Scotland ! lay thy bravest pride — Chiefs, knights, and nobles, many a one," and stretched on the gory heath, his left hand almost severed, and a gaping wound in his royal neck, James himself lay stark and still : " He saw the wreck his rashness wrought ; Reckless of life, he desperate fought, And fell on Flodden plain ; And well in death his trusty brand, Firm clenched within his manly hand, Beseemed the monarch slain." There seems no reliable account of the number of the slain. It amounted to many thousands on both sides ; but while the English lost only those of ordinary rank, the flower and pride of Scotland's chivalry had perished. Among the dead were the Sovereign, twelve Earls, fifteen Lords and Chiefs of clans, an Archbishop, two Abbots, the French Ambassador, a number of French Captains who took part in the campaign, and no end of minor gentry. There was, it has been said, scarcely a family of note in the nation but owned a grave in " Branxton's bloody barrow "' : " Many a mother's melting lay Mourn'd o'er the bright flowers wede away ; And many a maid, with tears of sorrow, Whose locks no more were seen to wave, Pined for the beauteous and the brave, \\']io came not on the morrow I The East Border From northern Thule to the Tweed Was heard the wail and felt the shock ; And o'er the mount, and through the mead, Untended, wander'd many a flock. In many a creek, on many a shore ; Lay tattered sail and rotting oar ; And from the castle to the dwelling Of the rude hind, a common grief. In one low wail that sought relief, From Scotland's heart came swelling !'' 457 ^i-^\ i.- .^ M^:iim&ist■^!^My:\:^ SYBIL S WELL. Flodden Field, or Branxton, as the English chroniclers invariably refer to the fight, is now well under cultiva- tion. The plough has long taken the place of the sword. " How that red rain hath made the harvest grow !" But the opposing positions are still pointed out. On the rounded, fir-crowned height above us, still known as the " King's Camp," the Scots army lay 458 Scott Country for the four days preceding the battle. The bold, craggy eminence a little further on, to which tradition has given the name of the " King's Chair," whence the whole valley can be scanned, was probably James's reconnaissance post. And the " weary pilgrim " may still quench his thirst at the traditional " Sybil's Well," near the base of the hill, close to the farm of Encamp- ment. Set in its sweet moss-clad grotto — " Where water clear as diamond-spark In a stone basin fell " — how deliciously ice-cold on even the hottest mid- summer days ! Carved on the lintel is the legend : " Drink, weary pilgrim, drink and stay. Rest by the well of Sybil Grey ' — a garbled adaptation from " Marmion."' Out to east and north the prospect is one of rare beauty. Here and there we catch glimpses of the "sullen Till" winding its lazy way northwards. One never forgets the well-known rhyme which Robert Chambers tells us he first heard from the " deep voice of Sir Walter Scott when it seemed to me to possess a solemnity approach- ing to poetry ": " Tweed said to Till, ' What gars ye rin sae still ?' Till said to Tweed, ■ Though ye rin wi" speed, And I rin slaw, "^'et where ye drown ae man, I drown twa.' " The East Border 459 The dark-brown battlements of Ford stand out in strong perspective against the thick-set woods opposite. And beyond, to the north-east, Barmoor edge, Surrey's camping-ground on the eve of the fight, is distinctly visible. We may trace his line of march westwards by Duddo and Heaton to Twizel Bridge, a mile or so from the Tweed. Its grand Gothic arch girding the treacherous Till, which here flows through a deep picturesque ravine faced with " shelving, broken, gro- tesque rocks, and tangled and shaggy with wood," remains practically the same as when Lord Howard's vanguard swept across it — " With all their Ijanners braxely spread, And all their armour flashing high." St. Helen's Fountain still gurgles from its flinty bed as it nmst have done for ages, and save for the greener glow of the landscape, and its deeper woodland setting, the scene is little changed from that fateful Friday four hundred years ago. Branxton lies within a mile or two in the hollow, an old place, and, doubtless, the true site of the battle. Evidences abundant have been unearthed — skulls and bones galore, cannon-balls, spear-heads, pieces of armour, and other relics. Hard by the roadside, about fifty yards from the Church, the real " Sybil's Well^" to which Scott refers, will be seen ; and crossing the road is the "runnel" from which Clare, seeking the "cup 460 Scott Country of blessed water " for the wounded and dying knight, shrank back in abhorrence— " For, oozing from the mountain's side, Where raged the war, a dark-red tide Was curdHng in the streamlet blue." Here also is " Marmion's Hill," the reputed scene of his death, and many another spot associated rather with the romantic than the historic element. Fact and fiction have been strangely intermingled. For, curiously enough, it is somehow taken for granted that every incident in " Marmion " — containing, as it does, a fairly accurate account of the fight — should have confirmation and location on these grassy downs of Branxton and Flodden. At Ford, " full of solemn feudality," as \\'illiam Howitt described it in the early fifties, built about 1287, and now magnificently restored, James is said to have spent those days of dalliance which gave the English time to come north and crush him. Scott represents the Lady Heron, wife of Sir William Heron, " Baron of Twizel and of Ford " — then a prisoner at Fast Castle — as one of the ornaments at the Court of Holy rood when — " King James within her princely bower Feasted the Chiefs of Scotland's power. Summoned to spend the parting liour." It was a night of " wasscll, mirth, and glee." Dame Heron chanted the ballad of " Young Lochinvar," and. The East Border 461 like a very siren, conquered the foolish, infatuated monarch. Her glancing dark eyes and artful blushes were interpreted, too, by Marmioii. Tradition has per- sistently retailed a romantic attachment between this Lady and the King, and she has been branded — let us hope falsely— as the real source of the Flodden disaster, in going between the armies and betraying James to Surrey. There is still seen the " King's Tower " at Ford, a massive Norman pile overlooking the battle- field, and in its upper part, in the "King's Room," above the fireplace, are the Royal Arms of Scotland with the inscription : " King James ye 4TH of Scotland did lye here AT Ford Castle a.d. 1513-" Than Ford there is not a prettier parish in North- umberland. To Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, one of Augustus Hare's " Two Noble Lives," its exceeding picturesqueness is due. In ancient days the place was no better than its neighbours — " squalid and miserable, the street being so badly paved and drained as to need stepping-stones to gain access to the cottages. But when the Lady came she changed all this, and, in the words of the people, 'she raised the village.' " One can scarcely realize that this broad open space, flanked by such wealth of foliage in trees and flowering shrubs, is the village street. To trans- form Ford into a " thing of beauty and a joy " so long 462 Scott Country as she lived, at least, was her Ladyship's constant endeavour. How well she succeeded every visitor knows. Perhaps her best memorial is found in the School- room. For two-and-twenty years the deft fingers and artistic eye and brain of the Good Marchioness wrought FORD CASTLE. these triumphs of genius — a unique gallery of sacred art — which adorn the interior. Here may the youth of Ford learn the great historic lessons of Scripture and something also of their higher significance. Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, Moses and Miriam, Samuel, David the Shepherd, Josiah, Daniel, our Lord and His Apostles, are all The East Border 463 there before them, graphic and hfe-Hke. To be a scholar at Ford School has a pathos which the children cannot well know. "It was their mothers and fathers who sat as models to Lady Waterford. Big men grimy with their toil on the neighbouring coal-field will point out to their sons lint-locked, laughing bairns in the frescoes which were exact portraits of them when they were in petticoats." And many a face that has been long hid in the ground still looks down, smiling, from these enchanted walls. For a moment, too, do we linger by the Angel Fountain and granite pillar in memory of the popular Marquess who had, Absalom-like, " no son to keep his name in remembrance." At worship on the morning of his death, that pathetic passage from the Second Book of Samuel had been read. Fond of sport, he went out to the hunt in the heyday of health and vigour. Ere the evening shades had begun to close around Curraghmore, his Irish home, he was borne back dead. To his widow he bequeathed Ford Castle, and, making it her chief residence, this gracious Lady was for over thirty years the most beloved — rather the most adorable — figure in the district. To hundreds she was the dearest and tenderest of friends, the inspirer and encourager of every good and beneficent enterprise. Now rests she well under the shadow of the sweet rural sanctuary which filled so large a place in her beautiful life. It is difficult to drag one's self away from Ford, so 4G4 Scott Country past of war and pageants and a present of tiowers and art." But " to Berwick we are bound,"" and Marmion's footsteps take us back to Twizel, passing on the way the " King's Stone," where James is said to have fallen in flight from Flodden. A few miles further, and " Norham's castled NORHAM CASTLE. steep " looms up before us, the most famous of the Tweedside fortresses immortalized by Sir Walter Scott. Of almost, impregnable strength, set down, as it were, to overawe a kingdom, it is now a total ruin. Seen from the wide graceful " wheel " of the Tweed, com- manding the steep wooded bank above, its broken The East Border 405 battlements yellowing in the " western blaze," as Marmion majhap saw the same golden glory, nothing equals Scott's description : " Day set on Norham's castled steep And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep, And Cheviot's mountains lone ; The battled towers, the donjon keep, The loophole grates, where captives weep, The flanking walls that round it sweep, In yellow lustre shone. The warriors on the turrets high, Moving athwart the evening sky, Seem'd forms of giant height : Their armour, as it caught the rays, Flash'd back again the western blaze, In lines of dazzling light." Founded sometime in the seventh century, Norham was a burgh of the Northumbrian kingdom in the eighth. From Lindisfarne it received the Gospel, and its church was an early Culdee settlement. Here the holy Aidan preached, and Cuthbert, his successor, became its patron Saint. Flambard, the fighting Bishop of Durham, built the Castle of Norham. in 1 121, probably on the site of an older stronghold. David I. of Scotland dismantled it in 1138. The famous Bishop Hugh Pudsey rebuilt it between 1154 and 1 170, rearing that very red-stone tower which remains to this day. In 1174 it was held as a Royal Castle by Henry II. Alexander II. attacked it unsuc- cessfully for forty days in 1215. Under King John 30 46G Scott Country it " rose to the rank of the hrst of English fortresses." Edward I. resided at Norham when acting as arbiter in the claims for the Scottish Succession. A few years after Bannockburn it withstood a prolonged but hope- less siege from the Sects. And for the next two centuries it was a bone of constant contention. The place fell to James IV. in the week preceding Flodden, and, following that event, was repaired by the English and occupied for a time. But its glor}- had departed, and early in the seventeenth century it was become little more than a mere "waste and wilderness of stones " : " The knights are dust, Their good swords rust, Their souls are with the saints we trust." Norham village, anciently Ubbanford, with broad, long street and curiously receding houses, the Green, the Cross, and fine Norman Church, are all of interest to the lover of Border lore. Ladykirk Church, on the opposite bank of the river, was built by James IV. in 1500, in gratitude for his escape from drowning whilst fording the Tweed. And on the green haugh of Holy- well, hard by, Edward I. received, in great state, the fealty of the Scots in 1291. Further down the river we pass Paxton, a reputed locale of the song " Robin Adair." Close by, amid some of the finest scenery on the lower Tweed, the first Suspension Bridge in the Kingdom, built in 1820 The East Border 467 by the inventor, unites the two countries. Within five miles Hes " our town of Berwick-upon-Tweed," as the phrase still holds in Acts of Parliament and royal Proclamations. Berwick's origin is lost in a dense antiquit}-. Long before the Norman Conquest it was a flourishing township, b}--and-by the chief seaport in Scotland, and one of its first four royal burghs. r''" .' ' .ZX.Z' . j"'^>*.' -^ ''isSi^^^'- ..... ■" ..^--^teg^ !■ ■HI BER\VICK-ON-T\VEED. Christianized towards the close of the fourth centurv, according to Bede, as a place of rich churches, monas- teries, and hospitals, Berwick held high rank in the ecclesiastical world. Its geographical position, too, as a frontier town, " made it the Strasburg" for which con- tending armies were continually in conflict. Century after century its history was one red record of strife - 30 — 2 468 Scott Country and bloodshed. David I., the Lion King, Henry II., and John of England, Edward I. — in whose reign the discussion of the claims of Baliol and Bruce to the Scottish Crown took place in the Dominican sanctuary at Berwick — Edward II., Wallace, and Bruce all left their mark on this ancient " Key of the Border."" In 1482 the town was finally relinquished by the Scots and ceded to England, and in 1551, after many weary viscissitudes, it was constituted an independent burgh, belonging to neither country. Its walls, built in Elizabeth's reign — it was one of the few walled and gated towns in Britain — were dismantled in 1822, and now form a pleasant promenade. Within its long- demolished Castle Edward I. confined the Countess of Buchan in an iron cage for four years for having set the crown on the head of Bruce at Scone. The antique Romanesque Bridge spanning the river between Berwick and Tweedmouth took no fewer than twenty-four years to build, from 1609 to 1634, whilst the Royal Border Bridge, Robert Stephenson's prepossessing structure — happily styled "the last act of the Union," and opened by Queen Victoria in 1850 — was completed within three years. John Mackay Wilson, poet and dramatist, and pro- jector of the still popular " Tales of the Border,"' was born at Tweedmouth in 1803, dying there in 1835 ; and Dr. Robert Lee, of the famous Organ controversy in the Church of Scotland, was also a native of the The East Border 469 place. Tweedmouth Moor was the scene of the brave Grizel Cochrane's encounter with the Enghsh mail- carrier whom she robbed of the death-warrant of her father, Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, condemned for 470 Scott Country- high treason in Charles 11. 's time. Near by, " Summery Spittal," with its fine beach and Spa, attracts an increasing number of visitors. Other scenes of note in the vicinity are Hahdon Hill, the English revenge for Bannockb.urn, where the Scots, under the Regent Douglas, suffered dire defeat in 1333 ; Lamberton Toll, notorious, like Coldstream, for its clandestine marriages ; the ruin of Lamberton Kirk, within whose walls James IV. was wedded in 1503 to Margaret of Eng- land ; and, further up the Berwickshire coast, the striking promontory of St. Abb's, sacred to Ebba of Northumbria and her winsome devotion ; and Fast Castle, the " Wolf's Crag " of the most fascinating and pathetic of Scott's romances — a poem in prose — the " Bride of Lammermoor." " Ever where the winds sweep resounding across the great hills of East Lothian, or the broader expanse of the German Sea ; where they rustle through the upland heather, or fan the grass on the cliffs under the walls of Fast Castle, will . they tell the mournful and touching story and breathe its plaintive requiem."' CHAPTER XIX THE PASSING OF THE WIZARD The annals of literature contain no act of heroism more honourable or more pathetic than Scott at the age of fifty-five — prematurely old, and rained in the midst of his fortunes — setting himself to "write off" the enormous liabilities which confronted him with the crash of 1826. "Time and 1 against any two," he said, " and God give me health and strength, and I will yet pay every man his due." When asked where he could possibly find the means of meeting such a demand, he pointed significantly to his head, and answered, " Here," In the six years between 1826 and 1832, the debt was reduced from ;^i20,ooo to about ;£"54,ooo. After his death a further sum of ^^22,000 received from his life insurance, with the profits of the novels and sale of copyright, discharged all claims against him. His creditors were amply satisfied, and no man had more magnanimous treatment from those to whom he was indebted. The literar}- output was a 472 Scott Country very miracle of intellectual fertility and dogged deter- mination. From every point of view the struggle was herculean — more than sufficient to crush the strongest soul — and one hardly wonders that the " breaking-up " period began thus early. For some time, too, his health had been failing. It was in February, 1830, that the first really bad symptoms showed themselves in an attack of an apoplectic nature, which caused him to fall speechless and senseless on the floor. By November of the same year he had a second slight stroke, and in April, 1831, a third and more distinct seizure. Still he continued to work, turning a deaf ear to every friendly warning. " Count Robert " and " Castle Dangerous," the fruit of this period, were complete failures. At length it was decided that he should spend the winter of 1831 in Italy, where his son Charles was an attache of the British Embassy at Naples. Several interesting episodes occurred before his departure. On September 17 the "boy of Burns" — Captain James Glencairn Burns — visited Scott at Abbotsford, and for the last time a party was held, and something of the old splendour revived. The occasion called forth Lockhart's lines beginning : " A day I've seen whose brightness pierced the cloud Of pain and sorrow ; both for great and small — A night of flowing cups and pibrochs loud Once more within the Minstrel's blazoned hall ;" The Passing of the Wizard 473 and ending with the prayer : " Heaven send the Guardian Genius of the vale Health yet, and strength, and length of honoured days, To cheer the world with many a gallant tale, And hear his children's children chant his lays ! " Through seas unruffled may the vessel glide That bears her Poet far from Melrose glen ! And may his pulse be steadfast as our pride When happy breezes waft him back again !" On the 2 1st, Wordsworth arrived to take farewell. The day following, "these two great poets, who had through life loved each other well," spent the morning together in a visit to Newark. Hence the third of the poems— "Yarrow Revisited" — by which Wordsworth has con- nected his name for all time with the most romantic of Scottish streams. " On our return in the afternoon," he says, " we had to cross the Tweed directly opposite Abbotsford. The wheels of our carriage grated upon the pebbles in the bed of the river that there flows somewhat rapidly; a rich but sad light of rather a purple than a golden hue was spread over the Eildon Hills at that moment ; and, thinking it probable that it might be the last time Sir Walter would cross the stream, I was not a little moved, and expressed some of my feelings in the sonnet : " A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain. Nor of the setting sun's pathetic light Engendered, hangs o'er Eildon's triple height ; Spirits of Power, assembled there, complain For kindred Power departing from their sight ; 474 Scott Country While Tweed, best pleased in chanting a blithe strain, Saddens his voice again and yet again. Lift up your hearts, ye Mourners ! for the might Of the whole world's good wishes with him goes ; Blessings and prayers in nobler retinue Than sceptred king or laurelled conqueror knows, Follow this wondrous Potentate. Be. true, Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea. Wafting your Charge to soft Parthenope I" Scott left Abbotsford on September 23 for London, where a month was spent. On October 29, in company with his son and two daughters, he sailed from Ports- mouth in H.M.S. Barham, placed at his service by the Government, though opposed, it should be remembered, to Scott's party in politics. It is unnecessary to detail the incidents of the next nine months. Malta, Naples, Pompeii, Rome, and other Italian towns were visited. He seemed to recover some of his old vigour and ambition. Two new novels were begun and nearly finished, and at Naples he went back to his first love in the formation of a collection of Neapolitan and Sicilian ballads. But his heart was ever homeward turned. The exile's song rang in his ears : " Hamc I hanic I hamc I O hanie fain wad 1 be ! O hamc ! liaiiic ! hamc I to my ain couiUric !" Much of the scenery reminded him of Scotland— the Eildons, Cauldshiels, and Abbotsford. A peasant's lilt recalled the melodies of the Border, and pathetically he began to recite "Jock o' Ha/cldean '' and his buy- The Passing of the Wizard 475 hood's "Hardyknute." When he heard of Goethe's death, whom he hoped to visit, he exclaimed : " Alas for Goethe, but he at least died at home. Let us to Abbotsford." So the return journey was begun — by Venice, through the Tyrol to Frankfort, thence down the Rhine to Rotterdam, and to London, which was reached on June 13. During the voyage he had another attack — " the crowning blow," Lockhart calls it — " a shaking of hands with death." And as an un- conscious and exhausted invalid he was driven to the St. James's Hotel in Jermyn Street, where he lay for three weeks in a state of supreme stupor. " Abbots- ford " was his cry in the clearer intervals that came to him. Like his own " Meg Merrilies " with the Kaim of Derncleugh, it seemed as if the spirit could not quit the clay but from the place of strongest memories. " At length,"' says Dr. Ferguson, one of his medical atten- dants, " his constant yearning to return to Abbotsford induced his physicians to consent to his removal. And the moment this was notified to him it seemed to infuse new vigour into his frame. It was on a calm, clear afternoon of July 7 that every preparation was made for his embarkation on board the steamboat. He was placed on a chair by his faithful servant Nicolson, half-dressed, and loosely wrapped in a quilted dressing-gown. He requested Lockhart and myself to wheel him towards the light of the open window, and we both remarked the vigorous lustre of his eye. He sat there, silently gazing on space for more than half an hour, apparently wholly occupied with his own thoughts, and having no distinct perception of where he was, or how he came there. He suffered himself to be lifted into his carriage, which was surrounded by a crowd, among whom were many gentlemen on horseback, 476 Scott Country who had loitered about to gaze on the scene. His children were deeply affected, and Mrs. Lockhart trembled from head to foot, and wept bitterly. Thus surrounded by those nearest to him, he alone was unconscious of the cause or the depth of their grief, and while yet alive seemed to be carried to his grave." The James Watt arrived at Newhaven on the gth, and being still, as during all the voyage, in a coma- tose condition, he was conveyed to the Douglas Hotel in St. Andrew Square, where the last two days in his "own romantic town" were passed. At a very early hour on the morning of the nth the drive to Abbots- ford was commenced. At first, wholly oblivious of his whereabouts as he was borne through scenes the most familiar to him in the world, he revived somewhat when the Vale of the Gala came in sight. The Wizard was re- turning to his own. Every foot was glamoured ground. The wand which had been waved across it with so subtle a spell was his own — unbroken while Time shall last. And now that he had again touched the border of the land he loved best on earth, and for the last time, the curtain lifted and consciousness returned. The spirits that rule the realm of old Romance seemed whispering to him as he lay there in the smiling summer sun, and for a few brief moments he recognised the features of the landscape. " Gala Water, surely — Buck- holm — Torwoodlee." When he saw the Eildons he became greatly excited, and in turning himself on the couch he caught a glimpse of his own towers at the The Passing of the Wizard 477 478 Scott Country distance of about a mile, and uttering a cry of delight, could hardly be kept in the carriage. Then he relapsed into stupor, but on gaining the bank irnmediately above Melrose Bridge his excitement became again ungovern- able. It was the glad, happy, released, satisfied sense that took hold of him of at last being "hame," amongst his "honest grey hills," in sight of the sun -kissed Eildons, and within sound of the "chiming Tweed," and at Abbotsford with the old familiar faces. Laidlaw was waiting at the door, and assisted in carrying him to the dining-room, where his bed had been prepared. He sat bewildered for a moment or two, and then, resting his eye on his old friend, said : " Ha ! Willie Laidlaw ! O man, how often have I thought of you !" By this time his dogs assembled around his chair, fawning on him, and licking his hands. Between sobs and smiles he tried to speak to them, until exhausted nature laid him asleep in the house of his dreams. He lingered for some weeks, alternating between cloud and sunshine. One day the longing for his pen seized him, and he was wheeled studj-wards, but the pen dropped from his nerveless fingers. " It was like Napoleon resigning his empire. The sceptre had de- parted from Judah ; Scott was to write no more.'''' Little wonder that he sank back on his pillow and the large tears flowed down his cheek ; or that, after a brief sleep, Laidlaw having said, " Sir Walter has had a little repose," he exclaimed, " No, Willie ; no repose The Passing of the Wizard 479 for Sir Walter but in the gni\c." The great Shadow- bringer was fast approaching, and he must have felt the flapping of His wings. When at his request Lockhart was about to read and enquired from what book, he replied : " Need you ask ? there is but one. ' The author himself of over a hundred volumes, and surrounded by a vast library in all languages, there was but one Book he thought worth listening to— one Book which could now give him solace. Of it he had written the memorable lines : " Within that awful volume lies The mystery of mysteries ! Happiest they of human race, To whom God has granted grace To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, To lift the latch, and force the way ; And better had they ne'er been born Who read to doubt, or read to scorn." Lockhart reading the fourteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel to Scott is one of the most impressive appeals for the verities of the Christian faith. " Well, this is a great comfort. I have followed you distinctly, and I feel as if I were yet to be myself again," he said. "What pencil,"* asks George Gilfillan, " shall give us the aged and worn-out Wizard, with velvet cap, faded features, but brilliant eye, listening in the library of Abbotsford * Such a picture lias come from tlie brush of Charles Martin Hardie, R.S.A. See George G. Napier's " Homes and Haunts of Sir Walter Scott." 480 Scott Country to the blended sounds of the Tweed gently murmuring o'er its pebbles, and the accents of the divinest love and compassion flowing from the lips of the Man of Sorrows ? * Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid : ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. I go to pre- pare a place for you.' " But delirium and delusion again prostrated him, and he sank daily. " Now he thought himself administering justice as the Selkirk- shire ' Shirra '; anon he was giving Tom Purdie orders anent trees ; now, it is said, he dreamed he was in hell — a dream not uncommon with imaginative persons in extremis. Sometimes, according to Lockhart, his fancy was in Jedburgh, and the words * Burke Sir Walter ' escaped him in a dolorous tone ; and anon his mind seemed for the last time to ' yoke itself with whirlwinds and the northern blast,' and, as it ' swept the long tract of da}-,' words issued from it worthy of the Great Minstrel, snatches from Isaiah or the Book of Job, some grand rugged verse torn off from the Scottish Psalms, or an excerpt sublimer still from the Romish Litany." " As I was dressing on the morning of Sep- tember 17th," says Lockhart, "Nicolson came into my room and told me that his master had awoke in a state of composure and consciousness, and wished to see me immediately. I found him entirely himself, though in the last extreme of feebleness. His eye was clear and calm — every trace of the wild fire of delirium The Passing of the Wizard 481 extinguished. ' Lockhart,' he said, ' I may have but a minute to speak to you. My dear, be a good man ; be virtuous, be rehgious, be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here.' " About half-past one on the afternoon of Friday, Sep- tember 21, Sir Walter Scott breathed his last in the presence of all his children. It was a beautiful day — the autumn sun stole softly in at the open window, and the music of the Tweed fell gently on the ear. " Forth went a shadowy hand And touched him on the brow ; Calmly he laid his wand Aside, and shook the sand — Death, is it thou ? Slow o'er his reverend head The darkness crept, While nations round his bed Stood still, and wept I" All the newspapers in Scotland, and many in England, clothed their columns in black for his death, and on the day of the funeral the bells of most cities rang a muffled peal. On Wednesday, September 26, his mortal remains were consigned to the tomb amid the mourning of thousands. Never in Border story was there a more honoured " passing." Invitations as follows were issued to nearly 300 persons, most of whom attended : " Sir, " The honour of your company here on Wednes- day, the 26th inst., at one o'clock afternoon, to attend 31 482 Scott Country the funeral of Sir Walter Scott, my father, from his house to the burial ground in Dryburgh Abbey, will oblige " Your most obedient servant, " Walter Scott. " Ar.nOTSFORD, 22 September, 1832." Services at Abbotsford, in the simple Scottish fashion, were conducted by the Revs. Dr. George Husband Baird, Principal of Edinburgh University, Dr. David Dickson of St. Cuthbert's, and George Thomson of Melrose. About two o'clock the melancholy pro- cession set out. All along the route — every rood of which Scott had ridden and driven hundreds of times — the evidences of the people's sorrow were many and striking. " It was melancholy at the very first," says Robert Chambers, who was present, '' to see the deceased carried out of a house which bore so many marks of his taste, and of which every point, and almost every article of furniture, was so identified with himself. But it was doubly touching to see him carried, insensible and inurned, through the beautiful scenery which he has in different ways rendered from its most majestic to its minutest features a matter of interest unto all time. At every successive turn of the way appeared some object which he had either loved because it was the subject of former song, or rendered delightful by his own." No figure in the Border The Passing of the Wizard 483 country had been more familiar, or was more beloved by all classes of the communit}'. "There was wailiny on the autumn bree/c and darkness in the sky* When, with sable plume, and cloak, and pall, his funeral train swept by." From Darnick Tower, a broad black banner of crape, hanging at half-mast, eloquently bespoke the grief of the villagers. The " sad hearts at Darnick," of which he had written seven years before in his "Journal," were now a bitter enough reality. Their " Duke " would never visit them more. At Melrose the bell tolled from the church steeple, and in accordance with the public notice,t all work was suspended, and the whole place wore an aspect of deepest gloom. " In the little market-place," says an eye-witness, "we found the whole male population assembled, all decently dressed in deep mourning, drawn up in two lines, and standing, with their hats off, silent and motionless. Grief was deeply impressed upon every * "The day was dark and lowering, and the wind high." — LOCK- HART. t " NOTICK. "As a mark of deserved esteem and respect to the memory of the late Sir Walter Scott, Bart., it is requested that the shops in Melrose and Darnick may be shut from a quarter past one till half past two o'clock to-morrow, and that the church bell should toll from the time the funeral procession reaches Melrose Bridge till it passes the village of Newstead. "JAMKS CURI.K. "Melrose, Tuesday, 25 Sept., 1832." 31—2 484 Scott Country honest countenance. We looked with extreme interest towards the Abbey. It seemed in our eyes that in common with all animated nature it had been endowed on this occasion with a soul and with intelligence to hail the melancholy pageant which wound away from it, and to grieve that its holy soil was to be denied the sad honour of receiving the ashes of its poet. A mild light streamed over the Eildon Hills, and fell softly on the ruined pile. We might have fancied that his spirit was hovering over this, his own dearest spot, and smiling a last farewell to it." For Melrose was surely the place of all others where Scott should have lain. It was the accident of ancestry only that bequeathed to Dryburgh that highest of her honours. Scott's creative genius was Melrose's claim of right for the body of the greater Wizard, " Whence burst his first, most ardent song, And swept with murmuring force along Where Tweed in siher flows." And now Newstead is reached, with narrow, tortuous street and wealth of sundials. Old-world and pictur- esque, it is believed to be — though we are not justified in accepting it — the Roman Trimontium, so named from Eildon's triple height, at whose base it nestles.* * Many of the houses arc adorned with old, curiously-carved sundials. Newstead seems to have had a very interesting history. It is probably the site of a Roman colony. A large number of remains have been found in the neighbourhood— altars, Samian The Passing of the Wizard 485 Thence the road in a gradual ascent, hned by the sweetest of hedgerows, follows the Tweed, revealing at its highest point a magnificent panorama of Melrose Glen ; and in front the rich variegated landscapes of " Ercildoune and Cowdenknowes Where Homes had ance commanding ; And Drygrange, wi' die milk-white yowes, 'Twixt Tweed and Leader standing." NEWSTEAD. The last crossing of the Tweed is at Leaderfoot, at one of the noblest bends of the river. How long and ware, coins of Augustus, Nero, Vespasian, and later Emperors. Several votive altars have been unearthed, whose inscriptions seem to support the notion that Newstead may have been a military station of some importance. Triniontium is marked in Ptolemy's Map of Britain, about \.i). 140. 486 Scott Country .!..*-*#«»** T '. r: JIB-"- J. M. \V. Turner, R.A., .-.kL-tched ill i8;i. BEMERSVDE. The figures in the foreground are Scott, staff in liand, leaning on Lockliuit ; the lady is Miss Haig. steep the climb to Gladswood and Bemersyde, past Kirklands and Redpath ! Here the Redpath schoolboys count the carriages — sixt}-t\vo in all — falling out after- The Passing of the Wizard 487 wards about the number, as one of them, a well- advanced octogenarian, recalled recently to the present writer. On the crest of Bemersyde Hill, through a slight accident, never rightly explained, the cortege paused at the very spot, curiously enough, where Scott so frequently halted for his favourite view (see p. 286) : " Where fair Tweed flows round holy Meh'ose, And Eildon slopes to the plain." Then on through Bemersyde village, past the ancient domicile of the Haigs, along the finely-wooded highway whence Sandy knowe Tower may be seen to the east, and once more down close to the Tw^eed, brimming full from bank to bank, the peculiar, reddish-brown scaurs and soil of the district imparting a rich Claude- effect to the scene, and Dryburgh is in sight, "Where with chiming Tweed The lint-whites sing in chorus." Besides its great antiquity, Dryburgh boasts a location unrivalled in the whole of Scotland. Surrounded on three sides by the Tweed, itself unseen from the Abbey precincts, and amidst " a brotherhood of venerable trees" of which some are known, from references to them in ancient documents as landmarks, to be almost as old as the Abbey itself,* " in picturesqueness and seclusion of situation it is perhaps the most charm- ing monastic ruin in Great Britain." The story of * A magnificent yew, close to the ruin, is believed to be coeval with the Abbey. 488 Scott Country Dryburgh is practically that of the other Border abbeys. Here, about 522, Modan, an Irish Culdee saint, set up his sanctuary, before whose day, however, the Druid priests had long performed their pagan rites ; hence the origin of the name — Darach Bruach — '' the bank or grove of the oaks." The foundation of the Abbey, about 1150, is usually ascribed to Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and High Constable of Scotland, but the saint- King, too, must be given credit for his share in the work ; indeed, in a charter con- firming the rich possessions of Dryburgh and his own pious liberality, he speaks of himself as the Founder — " the church of Saint Mary of Dryburgh which I have founded" {quaiii fundavi). Some twelve years were occupied with the building operations, and a chapter of Premonstratensian Canons from Alnwick were the first colonists. In 1 162, the remains of De Morville were laid in a tomb in the chapter-house beside his wife, Beatrix de Beauchamp, where a double circle on the floor, now almost erased, marks their resting- place. For nearly 200 years the White Monks of Dryburgh enjoyed a tranquil prosperity. Abbot William, swearing fealty to the English Sovereign in 1296, saved the Abbey during the wars of the first Edward. But in 1322 the army of Edward II. partially destroyed the place, and though never com- pletely restored, it fell an easy prey to the fury of The Passing of the Wizard 4,S'.) Richard II. in 1385. In 1544, it was a^^ain pillaj^'cd and burned by Bowes and Latoun, and a year later by Hertford, who left it very much in the condition in which we see it to-day. Chaucer's friend, " the . 490 Scott Country philosophical! Strode," to whom he dedicated his "Troilus and Cressida," received his early education at Dryburgh, during the first part of the fourteenth century, and it is asserted that Chaucer himself, with the "morall Gower," visited Strode here, but that is highly improbable. Andrew Forman, the pluralist. Archbishop of St. Andrew's and French Ambassador, the most notable figure in the ecclesiastical politics of his time, was Commendator of Dryburgh about 1511. He was the chief negotiator of the marriage between James IV. and Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., in 1503, and more than any man is he regarded as responsible for the insane policy which culminated in the tragedy of Flodden Field. Thomas Hannah, the astronomer, was born in a house within the Abbey area, and Edwin Stirling, the sculptor, was also a native of Dryburgh. Connected with Dryburgh was, and still is, the celebrated family of the Erskines, from which sprang the Founders of the Secession Church. Their father, Henry Erskine, minister of Chirnside, was born at Dryburgh in 1624, the son of Ralph Erskine, laird of Shielfield, an estate in the Leader valley still remaining in the family, and a direct descendant of the third Lord Erskine, who fell at Flodden. Ebenezer Erskine was born at Dryburgh, June 22, 1680, and Ralph at Moneylaws, in the parish of Carham, Northumberland, March 15, 1685. Whilst they had the best blood of Scotland in their N-eins, The Passing of the Wizard 491 there was, says their incest recent bio.t^rapher, " another strain, less aristocratic, but (juite as interesting^. In 1559 the first Erskine of Shieltield married Ehzabeth Hahburton, niece of the Thomas Hahburton to whom DRYBURGH — ST. MARY S AISLE. Sir Walter Scott traced his descent. In Drybur^^h Abbey Sir Walter lies beside men who were not only his ancestors, but ancestors of the Erskines. He was probably unaware of the connection, which has only lately been discovered." * As a matter of fact, Shielheld came to the Erskines through this Hahburton alliance, * "The Erskines" ("Famous Scots" Series), by Professor A. R. MacEwen, D.D. ; but see also Scott's "Memorials of the Hali- burtons." 492 Scott Country • Elizabeth Erskine being the only child and heiress of Walter Haliburton of Shielfield. Thomas Haliburton of Newmains, Scott's great-grand- father, purchased in 1700, from Sir Patrick Scott, younger, of Ancrum, the abbey lands of Dryburgh, and the ruin would have descended to Sir Walter by inheritance but for the folly of a spendthrift grand-uncle, Robert, son to the above Thomas. Scott writes bitterly of him as a " weak, silly man, who engaged in trade for which he had neither stock nor talents," and, becoming bankrupt, was forced to part with his property.* " The ancient patrimony," says Scott, "was sold for a trifle, and my father, who might have purchased it with ease, * The estate was sold in 1767 to Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Tod, of the East India Company's Service, for ^5,500, not ;^3,ooo as stated by Scott. It passed in 1786, also by sale, to David, eleventh Earl of Buchan, of the family of Erskine, who began at Dryburgh that labour of love which consisted in restoring the more ruined portions of the venerable pile, and gradually changing its surroundings — always pleasant — into a scene of ideal sylvan loveli- ness. It is to the artistic and historic, though, it must be confessed, sometimes eccentric, conceptions of this worthy laird that Dryburgh to a large extent owes the attractiveness which it has for the modern tourist. Lord Buchan was a dabbler both in prose and verse, and made many contributions to the periodical literature of his day. He was a kind of Scottish Maecenas. His description of Dryburgh is in (irose's "Antiquities of Scotland," vol. i. A natural son, Sir Da\i(l Erskine, succeeded him in tlie Dryburgh lands in 1829. He was the author of a large number of extravagant attempts at the drama, and compiled the "Annals and Antiquities of Dryburgh and other Places on the Tweed." Dryburgh is now the property of George Oswald Harry Erskine Biber Erskine. The Passing of the Wizard 4'.);5 was dissuadetl by my grandfather from doing so, and thus we have nothing left of Dryburgh but the right of stretching our bones there." In 1791 we fmd the Earl of Buchan bestowing such right of sepulture on Scott's father and his two uncles ; and on a red sandstone slab at the back wall of the Lady Chapel, in St. Mary's Aisle, the gift is recorded : "HUNC LOCUM SEPULTURE D SENESCHALLUS BUCHANLE COMES GUALTERO, THOM^E, ROBERTO SCOTT HALIBURTONI NEPOTIBUS CONCESSIT A.D. MDCCXCI." Here, then, " in the lap of legends old, in the heart of the land he has made enchanted," and amongst his ancestral dust, rests all that is mortal of the great Romancist. It was nightfall — about half-past five — w'hen the memorable procession arrived at Dryburgh. " The hearse drew close up to the house of Dryburgh, and the company, having quitted their carriages, pressed eagerly towards it. Not one word was spoken, but, as if all had been under the influence of some simultaneous instinct, they decently and decor- ously formed themselves into two lines. Tht servants of the deceased, resolved that no hireling should lay hands on the coffin of their master, approached the hearse. Amongst these the figure of the old coachman who had driven Sir Walter for so many years was peculiarly remarkable, reverentially bending to receive the coffin. No sooner did that black casket* appear which contained all that now remains of the most precious of Scotia's jewels, than * The coffin was plain and unpretending, covered with black cloth, and having an ordinary plate on it, with tliis inscription : " Sir Walter Scott of Abbotsford, Bart., aged 62." Joseph Shilling- law, one of Scott's Darnick friends, was undertaker. 494 Scott Country with downcast eyes, and with countenances expressive of the deepest veneration, every individual present took off his hat. A moment's delay took place whilst the faithful and attached servants were preparing to bear the body, and whilst the relatives were arranging themselves around it in the following order : Head. Major Sir Walter Scott, eldest son of the deceased. Right. Left. Charles Scott, J. G. Lockhart, second son. H son-in-law. Charles Scott of Nesi^itt, m James Scott of Nkshitt, cousin. K cousin. WiLLLVM .Scott of Raeburn, § Robert Rutherford, W.S., cousin. "^ cousin. Colonel Russell of Ashe- Hugh Scott of Harden, STiKL, cousin. cousin. Foot. \ViLLL\M Keith, Esy., Edinburgh. When all were in their places the bearers mo\ed slowly forward, preceded by two mutes in long cloaks, carrying poles covered with crape ; and no sooner had the coffin passed through the double line formed by the company than the whole broke up, and followed in a thick press. At the head was the Rev. John Williams, Rector of the Edinburgh Academy, and Vicar of Lampeter, dressed in his canonicals as a clergyman of the Church of England ; and on his left hand walked Mr. Cadell, the well-known publisher of the Waverley Works. There was a solemnity, as well as a simplicity, in the whole of this spectacle which we never witnessed on any former occasion. The long-robed mutes ; the body with its devotedly attached and deeply afflicted supporters and attendants ; the clergyman, whose presence indicated the Christian belief and hopes of those assembled ; and the throng of unco\cred and reverential mourners, stole along beneath the tall and umbrageous trees with a silence equal to that which is believed to accompany those visionary- funerals which have their existence only in the superstitions of our country. ... In such a scene as this, then, it was that the coffin of Sir Walter Scott was set down on tressels The Passing of the Wizard 405 placed outside the iron railins^ ; and liere tl;at solemn service, bcsjinninij with those words so cheering; to the souls of Christians, ' I am the resurrection and the life,' was solemnly read by Mr. Williams. The manly, soldier-like features of the chief mourner, on whom the eyes of sympathy were most naturally turned, 496 Scott Country betrayed at intcrxals the powerful efforts which he made to master his emotions, as well as the inefficiency of his exertions to do so. The other relatives who surrounded the bier were deeply mo\ed, and amid the crowd of sorrowing friends no eye and no heart could l^e discovered that was not together occupied in that sad and impressive ceremonial which was so soon to shut from them for ever him who had been so long the common idol of their admiration and of their best affections. Here and there, indeed, we might have fancied that we detected some early and long-tried friends of him who lay cold before us, who, whilst tears dimmed their eyes, and whilst their lips quivered, were yet partly engaged in mixing up and contrasting the happier scenes of days long^ gone by with that which they were now witnessing, until they became lost in dreamy reverie, so that even the movement made when the coffin was carried under the lofty arches of the ruin, and when dust was committed to dust, did not entirely snap the thread of their visions. It was not until the harsh sound of the hammers of the workmen who were employed to rivet those iron bars covering the grave to secure it from \ iolation had begun to echo from the vaulted roof that some of us were called to the full conviction of the fact that the earth had for ever closed over that form which we were wont to love and reverence ; that eye which we had so often seen beaming with benevolence, sparkling with wit, or lighted up with a poet's frenzy ; those lips which we had so often seen monopolizing the attention of all listeners, or heard rolling out, with nervous accentuation, those powerful verses with which his head was continually teeming ; and that brow, the perpetual throne of generous expression and liberal intelligence. Overwhelmed by the conviction of this afflicting truth, men mo\-ed away, without parting salutation, singly, slowly, and silently. The ■ day began to stoop down into twilight, and we, too, after gi\ing a last parting survey to the spot where now repose the remains of our Scottish Shakespeare, a spot lovely enough to induce his sainted spirit to haunt and sanctify its shades, hastily tore ourselves away."* * By an eyewitness — T. D. L. This is, perhaps, the best account that has been given of Scott's funeral, and the words of one who was himself a S|)ectator ought to be prescr\cd. The Passing of the Wizard 497 Henceforward, the chief memory of Dryburgh is not so much its sacred and storied Past, and the imaginary repeopHng of its soHtudes. t'or its own sake, how one dehghts to roam with reverent step through these classic shades ! But the historical and traditional asso- ciations which cluster around it become at once dwarfed by the recollection that the great Master of Scottish Romance chose his last long sleeping -place here, amongst his own kith and kin — the loved ones* who '■'■'■ Lady Scott was buried here in 1826. The inscription on her tombstone reads : DAME MARGARET CARPENTER, WIFE OP^ SIR WALTER SCOTT OF ABBOTSFORD, BARONET, DIED AT ABBOTSFORD MAY 1 5, A.D. 1826. Here also rests the hope of his family, the second and last Baronet, who died childless : LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SIR WALTER SCOTT OF ABBOTSFORD, SECOND BARONET, DIED AT SEA 8 FEBRUARY, 1 847, AGED 45 YEARS. HIS WIDOW PLACED THIS STONE OVER HIS GRAVE. Lastly HERE AT THE FEET OF WALTER SCOTT LIE THE MORTAL REMAINS OF JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART, HIS SON-IN-LAW, BIOGRAPHER AND FRIEND. BORN 14 JUNE, 1794, 'DIED 25 NOV., 1854. 49^ Scott Country came closest into his life, and in the midst of scenes that were imprinted on his very heart. Close by are the tombs of the Erskines and Haigs. " Not far from him is the tomb of the lordly Morvilles, and around are the graves of abbots and monks who lived all through Scottish story, heard the tidings of Bannockburn, Flodden, Ancrum, and Pinkie, their Matins and their Vespers now sunk in one silence of the dead — and only he, in the moving creations of William of Deloraine, and Lucy Ashton, and Jeanie Deans, has an immortality of memory." In 1847 a massive granite block in the shape of a sarcophagus was placed over his grave, where tens of thousands from all ends of the earth have read its simple words : SIR WALTER SCOTT, BARONET. DIED SEPTEMBER 21, A.D. 1832. And there, until the breaking of the morn, rests what is mortal of him whose name is knit for all Time to the fairest and sweetest spots in that Country of which he was the most illustrious Representative. " WiiLM-c shall we lay the dead ? What stately tomb shall yuard. With pall and scutcheon spread, And solemn vaults o'erhead Our Wizard Bard ? C.rcen is that valley's breast ; His native air Sii^hs from the mountain's crest — () lav him there ! The Passing of the Wizard 490 In the red heather's shade Thus shall ye lay him down ; Fold him in Albyn's plaid, And at his head be laid The laurel crown ; Nor mark with pile or bust That tombstone lowly ; The presence of his dust Makes the earth holy ! A shrine not made with hands ! And kingdoms, while his grave In silent glory stands, Shall fall, as on the sands Wave urges wave Midst the soul's sacred things His words inspired Shall echo, till the wings Of Time are tired !" 32- INDEX Abbotsford, 142, 251-282 Adam, Dr. Alexander, 22 Aidan, 18, 465 Aird, Thomas, 164, 305 Aitchison, Elliot, 128 Ale Water, 96 Allanhaugh Peel, 138 Allerly, 308 Altrive, 344 Ancrum, 59, 95 Ancrum Cross, 95 Ancrum Moor, 96 Anderson, Dr. Alexander, 333 Anderson, Dr. Robert, 100, 188 Armstrong, Dr. J., 155 Armstrong, John, 140, 184 Armstrong, William, 184 Arran, Earl of, 197 Arthur, 230, 332 Ashestiel, 157-175 ; described by Lockhart, 159 ; original of, 160 ; first owners of, 160 ; the Russells of, 160, 166 ; Scott's life at, 162 ; literary work at, 164 " Ashton, Henry," 224 Athole Cottage, Kirkton, 106 Auchinleck, Lord, 324 Auchinleck MS., 325 " Auld Maitland," 422 Aytoun, Professor, 152, 402, 449 Baillie, Lady Grisell, 332 Baillie, Joanna, 259, 263 Baird, Dr. Geo. H., 482 Ballantyne, Alexander, 34 Ballantyne, James, 176 l^allantyne, Jean, 394 Ballantyne, John, 176 Ballantyne, K. M., 34 Ballantynes, the, 30-34 Balnagovvn, 191 liankend, 93 Bannockburn, 299, 448 Bar moor Wood, 451 Barnhill's Bed, 105 Barns, 224 " Barthram's Dirge," 151 " Beardie," 173 Beild, the, 236 Bell, Glassford, 335, 403 Bemersyde, 10, 328 Bemersyde Hill, 4S7 Bemersyde Village, 4S7 Bennet, Sir W., 59, )iote " Bertha of Badlieu," 232 Berwick -on Tweed, 227, 317, origin of, 467 ; Scottish Crown claims at, 468; "Key of the Border," 46S ; walls, 468; castle, 46S ; bridge, 46S ; Royal Border Bridge, 468 " Betrothed, The," 242 Biggiesknowe, 214 Binram's Corse, 393 Birgham, 438 Birkhill, 406 " Birkhill, Jenny of," 406 Birkhill, Scott at, 407 Black, William, 238 Black Dwarf, the, 220 Jilack Hill, Ea,rlston, 287, 315 Blackhouse-on- Yarrow, 154, 383 Blackie, Professor, 53, 353, 403 Blackwood's Magazine, 68 Blakelaw, 68 ■' Blanket Preaching," 401, note Blythe, Andrew, 109 Bly the, Charles Faa, ill' Gvpsy King Bodsbeck, 386 Boisil, 290 Index 501 Bonar, Hnratiiis, 53 Border " Marrow " Men, 419, note Border poets, 54 Borthwick, 133 Boston's ministry, relics of, 420, note Bostons monument, 420 Boston, Thomas, 103, 394, 414, 417, 420, 439 Boston, Thomas, the younger, 93, 420 Bostons of Gattonside, 300 Bothwell, Earl of. 89, 152 Bowden, 305 " Bowed Davie," see Black Dwarf Bower, Johnny, 263, note Bowerhope, 385 Bowhill, 364, 430 Bowmont, Vale of, 68 Bowmont Water, 69 Branksome, see Branxholme Branxholme, 132, 135 Branxton, 451, 457, 459 Brethren stanes, 10, 20 Brewster, Sir D., 92, 301, 309, 403 " Bridal of Polmood," 240 " Bride of Lammermoor," 224 Broadmeadows, 369 Brockhill, 429 Brockie, W., 310 Brotherstone Hill, 20 Brougham, Lord, 442 Brown, Dr. (I^ab), 195 Brown, Professor Thomas. log "Brownie of Bodsbeck, " 236, 405 Bruce, the, 231, 4G8 Bruce, Mr. Wallace, 319 Brydone, Patrick, 443 Brydone, Wm., 357 Buccleuchs, the, 136 Buccleuch, Kirk of, 422 Buccleuch, Tower of, 422 Buchan, Earl of, 62, 65, 492 Buchan, John, 224 Buchan. Dr. W . 95 Buckholm, 476 Burnetts of Barns, 224 Burnflat, 129 Burnfoot, 267 Burns, Captain J. G., 472 Burns, Robert, 44, 63, 79, 93, 195, 237, 240, 289, 311, 342, iOi.432, 443 r.urritt, Elihu, 287 Bush aboon Traquair, 192 Byron, 259 Caerlaverock, 131 Caird, Principal, 403 Cairns, Principal, 403 Calderwood, David, 95 Calderwood, Professor H., 216 Caledon, Wood of, 192 " Calthon and Colmal, 245 Campbell, Lord Chancellor, 93 Campbell, Thomas, 105, 237 Canonbie, 142 Capel Fell, 415 " Captain Clutterbuck," 2G6 Carelha', Mary Lee of, 433 Cargill, Donald, 236 Cargill, Rev. Josiali, see Duncan, Rev. A. Carham Church, 447, vote, 490 Carlanrigg, 139 Carlyle, Thomas, 402 Carlyle, Mrs., 362 Carolside, 326 Carpenter, Charlotte M., 37 Carterhaugh, 431, 432 Carterhaugh, football match at, 433 Carters of New York, 333 Cartleyhole, 254 " Castle Dangerous," 248, 313 Castleton, 155 Catrail, 255 Cauldshiels, 265, 267, 474 Cavers, 103 Cavers Kirk and Cross, 103 Cessford, 252 Chalkheugh. Kelso, 49 Chalmers, Dr., 103, 403 Chambers, W. and R., 180, 213, 482 Chambers, Dr. W., 205 " Chambers Institution," Peebles, 213 Chapelhope, 394, 405 Characters, Scott's, see Originals Charge-I^aw, 253 Charlie, Prince, 93, 1S6, 317 " Charlieshope," 153 Charpentier, see Carpenter Chaucer, 490 Cheese Well, 197 Chiefswood, 267, 283 Chirnside, 490 502 Index " Christis Kirk on the Grene," 202 Christie's Will, 184 Clarkson, Ebenezer, 361 Claverhouse, 404 " Cleikum Inn," 218, 238, )wte Clephane, Elizabeth, 309 Clovenfords, 109, 158, 169 Cochrane, Grizel, 470 Cockburn, Mrs., sf£ Alison Ruther- ford Cockburn, Lord, 202, 237 Coldstream Guards, 444 Coldstream, 436, 439; ford, 436; priory, 436, 441 ; pomarium, 441 ; bridge, 442 ; Marjoribanks monuments at, 444 ; General Monk at, 444 Colmslie, 30S Constable, 34, 100, 435 Contin, 192 Coo Stane, 19 Cook, Captain, 66 Coppercleuch, 396 Copshaw, 149 Copshawholm, 155 Corehead, 232 Cornhill, 444 " Cottagers of Glenburnie," 12S " Count Robert," 472 Cousin, A. R , 309 Cout's Pool, 152 Covenanters of Moffatdale, 404 Cowdenknowes, 287, 326 Craig-Brown, Mr., 362 Craig-of-Douglas, 380 Cramalt, 389 Crawford, Robert, 194 Cristin the Hermit, 241 Crook Inn, 236 " Crook, Jeanie o' the," 236 " Crook in the Lot," 418 Crosscleuch, 404 413 Cross Kirk (Peebles), 207 Cupples, George, 333 Curie, Mrs., 36 Currie, Andrew, 335 '■ Cyril Thornton," 269 " Daft Jock Grey," sec Davie Gel I lit ley Dairsie, 332 Dalkeith Palace, 151, )iote Dandle Dinmont, 153 " Darien," 403 Darnick Tower, 270, 483 Darnley, 389 Davidson, James, 154 Davidson, Thomas, 93 Davie GcUatley, 427 Dawyck Woods, 246 Debbit Pool, 242 Deloraines, 428 Denholm, 102 Denholm Dene, 103 Deuchar, 372 Devil's Beef-tub, 232 " Devil's Dream," 305 Dickson, Dr. David, 482 Dingwall, 192 Disraeli, Benjamin (Lord Beacons- field), 268 Dob's Linn, 408 Dod Burn, 428 Dodds, James, 310 Dodhead, 428 Dominie Sampson, 310, 3^3 Doolittle, Captain, 310 Douce Davie Deans, 235 Douglas, Sir George, 53 Douglas, Dr. Robert, 254 Douglas, Sir W., 121, 370, note Douglas of Drumlanrig, 124 Douglas Glen, 381 Douglas Tragedy, 381 Douglas Tragedy Stone, 381 Dow Glen, 3S8 Dowie Dens, 374 Dragsholm, 152 Drochil Castle, 249 Drochil, Scott at, 248 Droonpouch, 200 Drummelzier Castle, 241 Drummelzier Kirk, 245 Dryburgh, 487-497 Drygrange, 288 Dry hope, 384 Duddo, 459 Duncan, Rev. A., 16-18 Duncan, Rev. James, of Den- holm, 108 Dunion, the, 11, 82 Dunnottar, Scott at, 130 Duns, 417 Durie, Lord, 183 Earlston, 312326, 450 ; original name, 315, church of, 316; early families, 316 Index 503 Eata, 290 Eccles, 438 Eckford, 59, note Edgeworth, Miss, 264 Edinburgh, 22 Edinburgh Border Counties As- sociation, 116, 318, 23^' Edmonstone, Robert, 53 Ednam, 55 Ednam Club, 63 Ednam, Ferney Hill at, 62 Eildon Hills, 255, 287, 304, 309, 329, 473, 476, 484 Eildon Tree Stone, 329 Eldinhope, 379 Eldon, Lord, 442 Elibank, 171, 342 Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 10,; Elliot, Jean, 95, 104 Elliot, Jock, 149 Elliot, Willie, 153 Elliots of Minto, 104 Ellis, George, 148 " Elshender the Recluse," see Black Dwarf El wand, 307 " Enterkin," 232 Ercildoune, sec Earlston Erskine, Sir David, 492 Erskine, Ebenezer, 490 Erskine, Rev. Henry, 445, 490 Erskine, Lord, 442 Erskine, Ralph, 445, 490 Erskine, William, 176 Erskines, the, 490 Etal, 450 Ettrick, 336, 349-351. 414-434 churchyard, 420; Forest, 157 kirk, 413, 417; manse, 417 Pen, 415; sacrament, 418 Shaws, 428 : source of, 415 Ettrickbridgend, 429 Ettrickhall, 421 " Eve of St. John," 12, 289 Ewes, 139 Faed's picture, 273 Fairbairn, Sir W., 52 Fairnalee, 171 Faldonside, 269, note Fast Castle, 460, 470 Fatlips Castle, 105 Fauldshope, 429 Ferguson, Professor, 219 Ferrier, Professor, 336, 403 IHambard, Bishop, 465 Flint, I'rofessor, 403 Flodden Field, 3, 36, 69, 84, 124. 125. 435. 447. 449-45« Floors, 26, 38, 41, 43 " Flower of Yarrow," 134 "Flowers of the Forest," 21, 95, 171 Forbes, Bishop, 236 Forbes, Professor, 403 Ford, 450, 459-464; "King's Tower" at. 461 ; " King's Room," 461 ; schoolroom, 462 Fordun, John of, 206 Forman, Andrew, 490 Forster, William, 128 Foulshiels, 169, 367 " Fourfold State," 418 Frankfort, 475 Eraser, Professor, 403 Erasers, the, 209, 239 Fruid, 209 Funeral, Scott's, described by an eye-witness, 493-496 Gala Water, 476 Galashiels, 256, 311 Gamescleuch Tower, 425 Gameshope, 236 Gattonside, 308, 312 Geddes's, the. sec Waldies. the Gemmels, Andveiv, 28, 50 (iibson. Sir A., 183 GilfiUan, Robert, 223 Gillespie of Carnock, 420 Gilmanscleuch, 426 Gladstone, W. E., 403 Gladswood, 285 Glen, the, 191, note Glen of Traquair, 191 Glendearg, 308, note Glendinning, Dame, 307 Glenlude, 187 Glenormiston, 213 Goethe, 475 Goose-green Head, 417 Gordon Arms, 187, 379 Gordon, Jean, 68, 73 Gordon, Madge, 75 Gowdie, John, 333 1 Gower, 490 I Gray, Gideon, see Clarkson, E. j Grey Mare's Tail, 386. 408 Grieve, John, 394, 426 Grieve, Rev. Walter, 394 504 Index Guthrie, Dr. Thomas, 232, 403 " Guy Mannering," 74, 153 Gypsies, origin of, 70 ; arrival in Scotland, 72 ; James IV. and the, 72; James V., 72; Queen Mary, 72; James VI., 72; names of, 73 ; settlement at Yetholm, 73 ; sovereigns, 76 ; present position of, 78 Gypsy King, 67, 78 Haggisha, 129 Haigs of Bemersyde, 10, 328 Haining, 434 Halilnirton, Barbara, 20 Haliburton, Elizabeth, 491 Haliburton, Thomas, 492 Haliburton, Walter, 492 Halidon Hill, 439, 470 Hallyards, 219 Hamilton, Elizabeth, 128 Hamilton, Lord Ernest, 155 Hamilton, Captain Thomas, 269 Hangingshaw Castle, 197, 370 Hanna, Dr., 403 Hannah, Thomas, 490 Happrew, 248 Harden, 134, 158 Harewoodglen, 364 Hartsgarth, 149 Hassendean, 106 Hawick, modern town, 118 , origin of name, 119; church, 119; Baron's Tower, 122 ; moat, 122 ; Common-Riding, 123 ; literary, 128 - 132 ; neighbourhood of, 132 ; museum, 132, 421, note Hawkshaw Doors, 383 Hawkshaw Rig, 3S3 Hazeldcan, Jock 0' , 106, 474 " Heart of Midlothian," 235 Heaton, 459 Heber, Richard, 100 Henderland, 388, 426 Hendersyde Park, 34 Henlawshiel, 106 Henry VIII., 450 Hepburn Family, 151 Hermitage Castle, 89, 149 Hermitage Water, 149, 152 Heron, Lady, 460 Hillslap, 307 Hindlee, 154 Hirsel, 438 Hobkirk, 59 Hogg, Frank, 128 Hogg, James, references to, 54, 128, 148, 166, 188, 194; statue of, 334 ; birthplace, 336 ; child- hood, 338-342 ; at Ettrick and Yarrow, 342; first meeting with Scott, 342; marriage, 344; last meeting with Scott, 344 ; meet- ing with Carlyle, 347 ; connec- tion with Yarrow Kirk, 373 ; at Mount Benger, 379 ; at Blackhouse, 383 ; grave of, 420; friendship with Scott, 422 Hogg, James (Hawick), 128 Hogg, Robert, 247 Holyrood, 33, 427, 460 Holywell Haugh, 466 Home, " Douglas," 21, 95 Hornshole, 125 Howitt, William, 445 Hoy, John, 309 Hunter, John, martyr, 233 Hunters of Polmood, 239 " Huntlee Bankis," 2G6, 330 Huntlyburn, 265 Hutton, 438 Hyndhope, 428 Inchbonny, 92 Inglis, John, 128 Innerleithen, 189, 200 Irving, Edward, 402 Irving, Washington, 171, 202, 263 note, 289, 304 James, G. P. R., 306 Jamie Telfer o' the Fair Dod- head, 6, 134, 42S Jamieson, Dr., 14S Jedburgh, beauties of, 79; old memories of, 81 ; the town, 82 ; history of, 83-85 ; abbey, 85-88 ; Alexander HI. married at, 87; castle, 88 ; Queen Mary's visit to, 89-gi ; literary associations of, 91-94 ; neighbourhood of, 95-99 Jedburgh Grammar School, 59 Jed, tlie, 59, 79 Jed Forest, 83 Jeffrey, Alex, 93 Jerdan, William, 53 " Jetliart justice," 85 Inde: 505 Joch o' the Syde, 149 Kaeside, 265 Kames, Lord, 43S Keeldar, 152 Kelso, Scott at, 23; inlUience on Scott, 25 ; the modern town, 26; Grammar School, 27; Kelso Mail. 31 ; Scott's first publica- tion, 32 ; library, 35; history of, 38 ; bridge, 44 ; abbey, 45 ; literary associations, 50-53 " Kennaqiihair," 30G Kenspid, 19 Ker, Dr. J., 236 Kers of Kippilaw, 300 Kershope Swire, 374 Kevv Lane, 62 " Kilmeny," 195 Kingledoors, 241 Kirkhope, 374, 428 Kirklands, 486 Kirkton School, 108 Knight, Professor, 237, 403 Knox, L C, 194 " Lady of the Lake," 163 " Lady, White, of Avenel," 306 Ladykirk, 466 Ladykirk Church, 468 Lady's Seat, 388 Lag, Grierson of, 404 Laidlavv, W., 148, 188-191, 342, 421 Lamberton, 470 Lamberton toll, 470; kirk, 470 Lang, Andrew, 199, 237, 238, note, 360 Langshaw, 308 Lariston, 149 Lasswade, ^-j. 158, 1G9 Lawson, Professor, 362 •' Lay of the Last Minstrel," 105, 123, 132, 137, 163, 166, 365, 390, 431 Leader Valley, 18, 20 Leader foot, 485 Learmont, 321 Lee, Dr. Robert, 468 . Lee, Professor, 403 Lennel, 437 Lermontoff, 321 Lewis, M. G, 14S Leyden, John, 54, 100-117, 148; literary life, 11 1 ; sails for India, 112; his appointments there. 112; death, 112; his "Scenes of Infancy," 112-115; grave, iiG, 25S ; contributions to " Minstrelsy," 14S Liddel Valley, 142 Liddesdale, influence on Scott. C42-145 ; legendary lore, 145- 149 ; Hermitage, his- tory of, 152 ; associations with Scott's works, 153, 154; castle, 155 Lilliard's Edge, 97 Lindean Church, 370, note Linkumdoddie, 240 Lintalee, 81 Linton, Thomas, 394 Livingstone, John, 96 Loch of the Lowes, 404 " Lochiel's Warning," 105 Lochy-Law, 416 Lockhart, J. G., 264-2C8, 479, 497 Logan Lea, 240 Logan Water, 241 " Lucy's Flittin'," 190 Lushington, Professor, 403 Lvne Valley, 248 ; kirk. 248 Lyte, H. F.. 66 Macdonald, George, 53 Mackenzie of Coul, 192 Macknight, Dr., 93 Macleod, Norman, 351 " Maid of Neidpath," 211 Makdougall, Sir G., 12 Malta, 474 Mangerton, 149 Manor Churchyard, 223 Manor Valley, 220-226 Marlefield-on-Kale, 59 " Marmion," 14, 163, 164, 173, 410 " Marmion," topograph V of, 435, 461 " Marmion's Hill," 460 Marriott, Rev. J., 14S " Marrow " controversy, 419 Mary, Queen of Scots, 89, 181, 327 Masson, Professor, 403, note Mathieson, Peter, 167 Max ton, 97 " Meg Dods," 21S Meggetdale, 3S7-397 Meggetfoot, 397 Mellerstain. 3, 333 500 Index Melrose, Battle of, 252 Melrose, Scott's association with, 283 ; situation of, 285 ; monas- tery at, 286 ; view from Old Melrose, 287-289 ; history of, 289-292 ; abbey of, 292-300 ; cross of, 301 ; literary associa- tions, 306 ; neighbourhood of, 307 ; historians, 310 Melrose Glen, 485 Melrose Hydropathic, 253 Mercer, Andrew, 361 Merlin, 230; grave of, 245 Mcrrilies, Meg, sec Gordon, Jean Mertoun, 10, 289 Millburn Farm, 153 Milton, 222 Minchmoor, 196 Minna and Brenda, 361 " Minstrelsy of Scottish Border," 145, 148 Minto, first Earl of, 105 Minto, 59, 104 Minto, Scott's reference to, 145 Minto Crags, 105 Moffat mffil-coach tragedy, 232 Moffatdale, pass of, 404 Moir, " Delta," 194, 317 " Monastery, The," 306 Moneylaws, 445, 490 Monklaw, 91 IMontagu, Lord, 264 Monteath Mausoleum, 99 Montrose, Marquis of, 441 ; relics of, 424 Morow, John, 300 Morritt, J. B. S., 14S, 259 Morton, Earl of, 249 Mossfennan, 241 Mosspaul Inn, 141 Mother of the Ettrick Shepherd, 343 Motherwell, William, 148 Mount Benger, 379 " Mount Sharon," 34 Mounteviot, 95 Maxwellheugh, 43 Mucklc mou'd Meg, 171 Murray, Professor Alex., 109 Murray, Dr. J. A. H., iii, note, 128 Murrays, the Jacobite, 241 Murrays of Elibank, 171-173 Murrays of I'hiliphaugh, 363 Naesmyth, Sir James, 246 Naesmyth, James, 246 Naesmyths of Dawyck, 246 Napier of Merchiston, 424 Naples, 472, 474 Neidpath, 20S, 211 Neidpath Fell, 164 Nether Tofts, 106 Netherby Hall, 142 Newark, 365 Newcastleton, 155 Newhaven, 476 Newhouse, 429 Newmains, 492 Newstead, 484 Nicol, Professor, 189 Nicol, James, 109, 188 Nicoll, Dr. Robertson, 53 Nine-Stane Rig, 151 " Noctes Ambrosianae," 334, 398 Norham Castle, 464-466; village, 466 ; green, 466 ; cross, 466 ; church, 466 North Castle Street, Edinburgh, 37 " North, Christopher," 237. 351 Oak wood, 429 Oeliiltiee, Edie, see Gemmels, Andrew Old Mortality, 130, 410; Scott meets, 130 " Old Q," 209 Oliver, Castle of, 209, 238 Oliver, Mrs. J. Rutherford, 128 Orchardmains, 193 Originals of Scott's characters, 17, 34, 51, 68, 73, 130, 153, 220, 310, 333. 361. 475 Ormiston, Sandy, 21 Ossian, 244 Otterburn, S3, 103 Outlaw Murray, 197, 370 " Outlaws of the Marches," 155 Over-Kirkhope, 416 Oxcleuch, 404 Oxnam, 93, 420 Paddy Slacks. 187 Pae, David, 403 Pallinsburn, 447 Park, Archie, 161 Park, Mungo, 169, 218, 361, 367- 369 1 Park, Mungo, and Scott, 169 Index 507 Park, Tower of, 149 Paterson, Rev. N., 131 Paterson, Robert (original of "Old Mortality "), 130, 131 Paton, Sir Noel, 378, note Paul Hamilton, 236 Paulinus, 447, note Pavilion, the, 308 Paxton, 466 " Peblis to the Play," 201 Peden the Prophet, loS, 236 Peebles, the town, 201-204; situa- tion of, 204 ; ancient tower of St. Andrew's, 205, 206; Cross Kirk, 207 ; neighbourhood of, 208-210 ; literary associations, 211-218 ; Scott's association with, 218-222 Peel of Goldielands, 132 Peel Burn, 164 Peel Glen, 169 Penielheugh, 95 Pennecuik, Dr., 217 Percy's " Reliques," 34 Phaup's, Will o'. Tombstone, 421 Phawhope, 416 Philiphaugh, 357, 363 Phillips, Margaret, 344 " Picture of Scotland, " 399 " Pilgrims of the Sun," 433 "Pirate, The," 268, 361 Pirie, Sir J., 52 Plora Wood, 195 Polmood, 239 Pompeii, 474 Porteous, Captain, 191, uote Portobello, 434 Portsmouth, 474 Posso, 224 Powsail, 245 Priesthaugh, 138 Priesthill, Brown of, 406 Pringle, Thomas, 68 Pringles of Whytbank, 300 " Probationer, Scottish," the, 93, 98 Pudsey, Bishop, 465 Purdie, Tom, 166, 261, 301, 4S0 " Quentin Durward," 68 Rachan, 241 Raeburn, 173 Raffles, Sir S.. 116 Raid of the Reidswire, 84 Ramsay, Sir Alex, 120 Ramsay, Allan, 59, note, 138, 220, 384 Ramseycleuch, 422 Rankleburn, 422 " Rattlin' Roarin' Willie," 138 Ravenswood, 285 " Redgauntlet," 34 Redheugh, 149 Redpath, 287, 486 Reid, Sir John, of Stobo, 247 Rennie, 43 Renwick, James, 236, 407 Rhine, 49, 475 Rhymer, the, 20, 245, 248, 312- 332 Rhymer's Mill, 320 Rhymer's Tower, 318-320 Rhys, Professor, 377 Riccalton, Rev. Robert, 59 Richardson, Robert, 399 Richmond Church, 62 Riddell, H. S, 138, 428 Riddell, W. B. C, 139 Ridpath, Rev. George, 439 Ridpath, Philip, 439 Riskinhope, 386, 405 Risp Syke, 348, 382 Ritchie, David, see ' ' Black Dwarf " Ritchie, Miss, see " Meg Dods " Ritson, Joseph, 148 Roan, 149 Rodono Hotel, 397 Rokeby, 260 Rome, 474 Rosebank, 36 Rotterdam, 475 Roxburgh, 38-41 Roxburgh, Siege of, 40 ; James H. killed at, 40 Roxburghshire, 142 Royalty and the Borders, 67 Ruberslaw, 58, 106, 129 " Rule, Britannia," 60 Ruskin and Scott, 36, 160 Russel, Alexander, 237 Russell, Dr. W., 171, note Russells, the, 374 Rutherford, Alison, 21, 171, 25G Rutherford, Rev. John, Yarrow, 372 Rutherford, Professor, 372, 439 Rutherford, Samuel, 95 508 Index Sampson, Dominie, 29. 333 Sandyford, 451 Sandyknowe Tower, i, S-12, sec also Smailholm Sandyknowe Tower, view from, 11 Sandyknowe Farmhouse, G San key, Ira D., 309 Sanson, James, see Domintc Sampson Satyr Sykes, 195 Saughtree, 155 Scabcleuch, 413 Scot of Satchells, 128 Scot, Michael, 43, 230, 299, 429 " Scotland Yet," 138 Scott and Thomson, 66, note Scott of Harden, 171 Scott, Adam, 425 Scott, Andrew, 305 Scott, Charles, 472 Scott, Janet, 36 Scott, Lady John, 98 Scott, Lady, 497 Scott, Robert, junior, 36 Scott, Robert, 5 Scott, Robert, of Oak wood, 429 Scott, Thomas 91 Scott, Sir Walter, early years at Smailholm, i ; restoration of health, 4; grandfather, 5; first lesson in verse, 7 ; admiration for Sandyknowe, 10 ; last visit to, 10 ; pictures of life at Sandy- knowe, 12 ; precocious child, 20 ; visits Bath, 21 ; removal to Edinburgh, 22 ; at school, 22 ; leaves High School, 23 ; at Kelso, 25; grammar school, 27; returns to Edinburgh, 31 ; at the University, 35 ; finds a second home at Rosebank, 36 ; called to Bar, 37; marriage, 37; settles at Edinburgh and Lass- wade, 37; sells Rosebank, 37; Sheriff of Selkirk, 37; Scott and the gypsies, 68 ; first appearance as counsel, 91 ; political visits to Jedburgh, 93 ; friendship with Leyden, 100; at Minto, 105; visits to Hawick, 129-132 ; as- sociations with Liddesdale, 142 ; first Border home, 157; Sheriff, 157 ; leaves Lasswade, 158 ; Ashestiel, 160 ; ancestry, 173 ; builds Abbotsford, 257 ; asso- ciations with Melrose, 291-303 ; meeting with Hogg, 342, 422 ; associations with Ettrick, 424 ; attempt to pay creditors, 471 ; farewell to Wordsworth, 473 ; goes abroad, 474; returns, 476; death, 4S1 ; funeral, 484 ; buried at Dryburgh, 491 Scott, Sir Walter, references to works of, 12, 14, 17, 34, 50, 51, 68, 73, 105, 106, 123, 130, 132, 137. 145, 153. 163, 164, 166, 171, 173, 176, 178, 199, 220, 224, 235, 248, 260, 306, 310, 313, 333, 365, 390, 410, 431, 470, see also " Mar- mion " Scott, Sir Walter, 2nd Baronet, 497 Scott, Walter, father of Sir Walter, 5 Scott, William, 155 Scott's characters, see Originals Scotts of Gala, 300 Scrope, 308 Seaforth, 191 Selkirk, 158, 355-362 Selkirk, literary associations of, 358 Selkirk Foresters at Flodden, 356 " Selkirk, J. B.," 359, 434, 449 Selkirk souters, 358, note Seward, Anna, 148 Shairp, J. C, 194, 237, 403 Sharpe, C. K., 148 Shenstone, 222 Sheriffmuir, 248 Shiel, Tibbie, 39S-401 Shields, Alex., 236, 332 Shields, Michael, 236 Shielfield, 490 Shillinglaw, Joseph, 493, note Shirra's Knowe, 164, 435 Shorthope, 416 Shortreed, Robert, 20, 91, 143 Simprin, 41S, 439 Simpson, Sir J. Y., 376 Singlie, 342 " Sir Tristrem," 148, 313, 323 Skelfhill, 428 Skene, 22, 162, 169, 237, 407 Skene, Loch, 408 Skiddaw, 415 Skinner's Hill, 253 Skirling, Douglas of, 404 Smailholm, 1-18 Smailholm Kirk and Manse, iS Index 500 Smibert, Thomas, 216 Smith, Alexander, 218 Somerville, Dr., 128 Somerville, Mary, 92 SouHs, Nicholas de, 151 Southdean, 57, 62, bj, 154 Southey, iGtj, 426 Soutra'Hill, 450 Spittal Spa, 470 Stanhope, 241 Stanley, Dean, 403 St. Boswell's, 290 St. Cuthbert, 10, 13, iS, 465 St. Gordian's Cross, 225 St. Helen's Fountain, 459 St. James's Fair, 39, note St. Kentigern, 230, 231, 247 St. Mary's, 390 St. Mary's Kirk, 384 St. Mary's Kirkyard literary asso- ciations, 392 St. Mary's Loch, 383, 396 St. Modan, 4S8 "St. Ronan's Well," 17, 199. 218 Stephenson, Robert, 468 Stevenson, D. W., 319 Stevenson, R. L., 403 Stewart, Lady Louisa, 185 Stichill, 439 Stirling, Edwin, 490 Stobs, 428 Stobo, 220 Stobo Castle, 246 Stobo Kirk, 247 Stoddart, Anna M., 53 Stoddart, T. T, 53, 403 " Strathesk, John," 238 Strode, Ralph, 490 "Surgeon's Daughter," 361 Surrey, Lord, 450 Suspension bridge, first, 466 Swinton, Jean, 439 Swinton, Sir John, 439 Sybil's Well, 45S " Symon and Janet, " 305 "Tales of the Border," 468 " Tales of my Landlord," 220 Taliessin, 230 Talla, the, 235 Talla Linns, 235 " Tamlane Young," the, 431 Tamlane's Well, 432 Telfer, James, 155 " Teribus and Teri Odin," 127 Terry, Daniel, 259, 261 Teviot, the, 26 Teviotdale, loi. 106, 112. 128, 132 Teviothead, 138 Thackeray, 195 Thirlestane, 424 Thomas the Rhymer, 20, 312-332 Thomson, James, birth, 55; child- hood, 57; association with South- dean, 57 ; school, 59 ; destined for ministry, 60 ; first publica- tions, 60 ; memorials of, 62 ; Earl of Buchan's patronage, 65 Scott and Thomson, 66, note Thomson, James (Bowden), 306 Thomson, George, sec Dominic Sampson Thomson, Rev. George, 482 Till, the, 459 Tillmouth, 291 Tinnis, 372 Tinnis Castle, 244 Toftfield, 265 Torwoodlee, 476 Tower of Graham, 1S4 Train, Joseph, 130 Traquair, 178-200 Traquair, first Earl of, 1S2 Traquair, last Earl of, 184 Traquair gateway, 185 Traquair Knowe, 188 Trossachs, 166 Tully-Veolan, 179 Turgot, Bishop, 291 Turn- Again, 253 Turnbull, Walter, 254 Tushielaw, 426 Tushielaw Burn, 413 Tushielaw Inn, 413 Tweed, 26, 43. 227 " Tweeddale Raide," the, 248 Tweedhopefoot, 232 Tweedie family, 243 Tweedmouth, 468, 470 Tweedmouth Moor, 470 j Tweed's Cross, 231 Tweed's Well, 230 Tweedshaws, 232 Tweedsmuir, 234 Tweedsmuir Churchyard, 233 Tweedsmuir Session Records, 234 Twinlaw Cairns, 30 Twizel Bridge. 451, 464 Tyrol, 475 510 Index Ubbanford, sec Norham Vanbrugh, Sir J., 43 Veitch, James. 92 Veitch, Prof. John, 214, 428 Veitches of Dawyck, 246 Venice, 475 Waldies, the, 34 Wallace Monument, 289 Wallace, William, 356, 371 W'allace's Trench, 371 Warburton, Eliot, 403 Wark, 445-447, 450 ; Kaim of, 445 ; castle of, 445 ;• Order of the Garter instituted at, 446 Warrior's Rest, 375 Wat of Harden, 5, '133, 429 Waterford, Marchionessof, Louisa, 461 Watson, James, 93 Watson, Jean L., 232 Waugh, Dr. Alex, 333 " Waverle)-," 163, 176, 178 Waverley Cottage, 22 Welch, John, 362 Westburnflat, 149 Whale, Lancelot, 29 Whale, Robert, 30 White Coomb, 386 " Wild Glen sae Green," 139 Wilkie, Sir D., 263 Williamhope Ridge, i6g " Willie Wastle," 240 Wilson, James, 128 Wilson, John Mackay, 468 Wilson, Robert, 128 Wilson, Professor, stv Christopher North Wilson, Sir D., 376 Wilton Dean, 128 Witehou, 437 Woodlandslee, 342 " Wolf's Crag," 470 Wordsworths, the, 92, 129, 169, 187, 188, 210, 286, 364, 473 Wrangholm, 13 Wrangholm, St. Cuthbert at, 19 Yair House, 171 Yarrow, 349-414 Yarrowfeus, 379 "Yarrow, Flower of, " 134 Yarrowford, 370 Yarrow, poetry of, 352-354 "Yarrow Unvisited," 170 Yarrow inscribed stone, 377 Yarrow, kirk of, 372 Yarrow, Little, the, 406 Yarrow Revisited, Yester, Lord, 211 Yetholm, 69-78 " Young Lochinvar, Younger, John, 306 412 460 AND SONS, LTD., PRINTEKS, GUILOFORU UNIFORM POCKET EDITIONS. 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