like the rest, on the banks of the Tweed, and consists in a tower of very remote antiquity, to which the great additions which caused the house to assume its present un-fortress-like aspect, were made in the reign of Charles I by John Earl of Traquair, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland under that monarch. The house continues to be the seat of the Earls of Traquair, so remarkable in this protestant country for their continued attachment to the Roman Catholic faith. Upon an eminence at a little distance, is "the Bush aboon Traquair," consisting of a few meagre birch trees, the remains probably of a considerable thicket, once the seat of pastoral love, and which, as such, has been consecrated in the strains of one of our best national melodies. In the upper part of the country many remains of antiquity are still to be seen. The church of Tweedsmuir stands upon a mount, which is generally supposed to be an ancient tumulus, and is vulgarly called a Roman work. Vestiges of the ancient castles of Oliver, Fruid, and Hawkshaw, are extant near a farm called Nether Minzeon. On the banks of the Fruid is the grave of Marion Chisholm, who is said to have come hither from Edinburgh, while the plague was raging there, and to have communicated the pestilential infection to the inhabitants of the three different farms of Nether Menzion, Glencotha, and Fruid, by means of a bundle of clothes which she brought with her; in consequence of which a number of persons died, and were buried in the ruins of their houses, which their neighbours pulled down upon their dead bodies. In the parish of Glenholm are the remains of six ancient towers which were built for defence against the incursions of the borderers. There is a plain by the side of Tweed, on which there are several mounts, apparently artificial. The proprietor had the curiosity many years ago to cause one of them to be dug up, and there found the skeleton of a man with bracelets on his arms; the body was enclosed in a stone building, and nigh him was an urn. MERLIN'S GRAVE.-BROUGHTON. 193 Upon a spot in the parish of Drumelzier, near the confluence of the Powsail with the Tweed, there is a little tumulus, said to be the grave of Merlin, the celebrated Caledonian seer. Whatever may be thought of such an averment, it cannot be disputed that the tradition has at least probability. Connected with it, is a rhyme, When Tweed and Powsail meet at Merlin's grave, This old prophecy is said to have been fulfilled on the day of King James's coronation as monarch of Great Britain, when there was such a flood in both the Tweed and Powsail that their waters did actually meet at Merlin's grave,- -a juncture which never took place either before or since. In the parish of Broughton are the remains of ten old fortresses or towers, which appear to have been houses of great strength. In the under story they had a wooden door of uncommon thickness, full of iron spikes with broad heads, and a strong iron gate that opened on the inside. One of these doors and gates was preserved in the parish for a long time, as a piece of antiquity, and had been seen by several people alive thirty years ago. In one of the castles Macbeth is said to have lived; and it is called Macbeth's Castle to this day. In Megget, a district of the parish of Lyne, once a distinct parish, are the remains of two old towers, which appear to have been built partly for defence, partly for accommodating the kings of Scotland, when on their hunting-parties in "the Forest." The traces of three or four roads, in different directions across the hills, are still visible. At what period, or with what design they were formed, is uncertain, though it is probable that, when the country was covered with wood, they were cut out for the king and his suite when they went ahunting. Peeblesshire. The parish of Manor, which stretches to the southwest of the town of Peebles, contains several curiosities of an antique description; in particular, the remains of a Roman camp, where a Roman urn and some old coins were dug up a few years ago-a tower raised upon an eminence, and which appears to have served as the watch-tower of the district and a huge upright stone, built into the wall by a way side, marked by strange holes, and apparently an aboriginal monu ment. In the parish of Newlands, at the confluence of the Forth and the Tweed, stand the stately ruins of Drochils Castle, which was built by the Regent Morton, and left unfinished at his decapitation. The Crook Inn may occasionally appear to travellers the most important object in the county of Peeblesshire; and we cannot, therefore, pass it over in silence. It is a lonely house, in the southern and mountainous district of the county, serving as a stage upon the road from Edinburgh to Dumfries. Its situation upon the west bank of the Tweed, and the circumstance of a farm house called Hearthstane being placed directly opposite to it on the east, have given occasion to a very curious and popular_puzzle. "The Tweed," say the inhabitants of Tweeddale to strangers, " is one of the most remarkable rivers in the world, for at one part of its course it runs through between the Crook and the Hearthstane." We need not explain to our Scottish readers, that the crook is the name of an iron hook, from which culinary utensils are suspended over the fire in the kitchens of farm-houses in Scotland. END OF "THE VALE OF Tweed." 195 Dumfriesshire. How lovely, Nith, thy fruitful vales, How sweetly wind thy sloping dales, Where lambkins wanton through the broom. BURNS. DUMFRIESSHIRE, one of the most important of the southern counties, adjoins to Roxburghshire on the west, and completes the Border-line. It is a county of great extent, being in length sixty, and in breadth thirty miles. Its length is intersected latitudinally by three rivers of note, the Esk, the Annan, and the Nith, which, descending from the mountains at the head of the county, fall into the Solway Frith, and form three distinct vales, respectively termed Eskdale, Annandale, and Nithisdale. Eskdale adjoins to Roxburghshire; Annandale is the central strath; and Nithisdale the most westerly. The county is not particularly distinguished for its natural features, though the banks of the rivers usually afford fine scenes. Dumfriesshire, like the rest of Scotland, was once covered with natural wood, though now chiefly bare; and it is told by tradition, that the laird of Corehead, a place pretty far up Annandale, used to boast he could let a hound slip at his own door, which would not get out of the wood upon his own property, till it reached the sands of Solway. The Vale of the Esk is remarkable, over most others in the south of Scotland, for the exquisite loveliness of its scenery; and it is generally allowed by travellers, that there is nowhere a more delightful ride than that between its chief town Langholm and the village of Longtown in England. The situation of Langholm itself is highly beautiful. Embosomed in woods, surrounded by hills, intersected by streams, its scenery is of that quiet unobtrusive character, which soothes rather than overpowers, and which yields in the long run more permanent pleasure than the gigantic and frowning heights, stormy firths, and troubled lakes that form the chief attraction of the Western Highlands. Here the Ewes and Wauchope, after sojourning" through moors and mosses many," end their pilgrimages as separate streams; and it is this meeting of waters in the midst of spires, villas, and gardens, that lends so peculiar a charm to the scenery of Langholm. After engrossing the two moorland streams just mentioned, the Esk careers away with increased bounds and greater speed; and on a fine summer morning, when the birds are singing, the trouts leaping, the trees in leaf, and the flowers in bloom, nothing-nothing can be finer than a walk by this part of its course-f -fit avenue to the luxuriances of merry England! Eskdale derives a more than common charm from the memory of Johnnie Armstrong, whose name is associated with many of its localities. His tower of Gilnockie still stands,-though converted into a cowhouse,—a few miles below Langholm, on the left bank of the Esk. It was on "Langholm Holm," that, when going to meet the king, he and his "gallant companie" of thirty-six men ran their horse and brak their spears;" when, to pursue the picturesque language of the ballad, The ladies lookit frae their loft windows, Johnnie terminated his mortal career at Carlenrig, a place not far distant from Moss-Paul, on the road between Langholm and Hawick. He had come to meet James V, in one of that monarch's thief-destroying tours through the south, attended by a numerous band of followers, arrayed in all the pomp of border chivalry. |