nor is the land very fertile around; but to make amends for all this, the fine water of Yarrow is some bow-shot distance-a burn well stored with trout runs past the very door-and, better than all, the wife of the poet, a prudent and clever lady, keeps the whole in good order, and presides over the in-door economy of her dwelling-place in a way worthy of more worldly prosperity. We had a pleasant chat about things bygone—how we met of old on Queensberry Hill, with the 'Lay of the last Minstrel' and a bottle of Ferintosh for our companions-how we lingered at a Thornhill fair till the morning stars shone-and how we discoursed in old Dumfries on the merits of all poets living and dead. During all this we made use of our eyes, and looked at the Shepherd's library—a small, but valuable collection; at his pictures on the wall, among which we remarked a clever portrait of one of his children-a likeness of a fine collie-and two of Martin's exquisite engravings, one of them the Fall of Nineveh. The Scottish games of Inverleithing were talked of, where wrestling, pitching the bar, throwing the sledge hammer, and archery, are practised in the presence of the noblemen and gentlemen of the district, and in which the Shepherd himself takes a leading part. He invited us anxiously to these sports, held on the 2d of August—showed us certain silver buttons, with suitable devices, sent to him by a Scottish nobleman, to be worn on that day—and, finally, producing a good yew bow six feet long, dared us to attempt to string it. Now, in a vain moment, we had said something of our skill with this old weapon, and the Poet, who sorely misdoubted us, had a roguish twinkle in his eye, as we handled the bow in such sort as bow was never handled before; we nevertheless lodged the string, and our entertainer spared us farther proof of our skill. The dinner was excellent-broth of the best, trout, lamb and haggis; and when their reliques were removed, the Shepherd set on the table a massive punch-bowl of solid silver, the gift of Mr. Franks; and with no little knowledge he mixed the whisky and the sugar and water. As this pleasing tipple went round, we said, 'What is your pen about now, Mr. Hogg ?'-' Pen!' said he, 'it might as well be in the goose's wing; I cannot get writing any for the visits of my friends; I'm never a day without some.'-We looked at the two guests to whom he had formerly alluded:

they looked at us and we all perhaps felt that a man might be ruined by the visits of thoughtless friends.

'Crowdie ance, crowdie twice,

Crowdie three times in a day;
And if ye crowdie ony mair,

Ye'ell crowdie a' my meal away.'

We tore ourselves reluctantly away from Altrive and its hospitable master and mistress, and pursued our way along the Yarrow.

6

"The mere names of places renowned in song and story would fill a column; we saw the dowie dens of Yarrow,' and the two gray stones which mark the scene of the tragedy. One of these rude but effectual monuments was about to be destroyed by the hands of a divine, when it was saved by the poetic Sheriff. We passed 'Sweet Bowhill,' and those wooded acclivities where

'Newark's ruined tower

Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower.'

The memory of our ancestor rose upon us, as we passed Philiphaugh, where he fought and bled; and Janet and her elfin lover were present as we looked on Carterhaugh; we hastened through Selkirk, singing, in a subdued tone of voice, 'Sutors a'-sutors a',' and hurried on towards Abbotsford, with the hope of reaching, before bed-time, the abode of the greatest of all Scotland's spirits. But the ascending-into-heaven and descending-intohell nature of the road interposed-the candles, when we reached the gates, were burning bedward, for it was now ten at night; so we drove on to Melrose, and with the light of the moon surveyed the splendid ruins. Well has the poet sung—

'He that would view Melrose aright,
Must visit it by the pale moon-light ;'—

and with equal beauty and accuracy has he called it the 'ruin gray;' and observed that the flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field around are carved on the fabric. In the burial ground we saw a small monument in memory of Thomas Purdie, woodforester at Abbotsford, erected by his affectionate master. We forgot the dark Abbey' as we looked at this honorable memo

morial. On the morrow we made our way to Abbotsford, and were received with what Burns calls, in his emphatic language, 'a soul-warm welcome.' We had not seen Sir Walter for years, and the newspapers had hinted of ill-health: we found him hale and ruddy in the outward man, and in conversation all that we had ever known him. Indeed, out of the dozen times at least that we have had the honour of being in his company, we never found him so shrewd, so anecdotish, and so agreeably companionable. His foot, as he said of Rob-Roy, was on his native heath, and we were his guests; yet to be pleasant cost him no effort, and his wit ran as readily as the waters of the Tweed. His hair is as white as the 'Dinlay snow;' and we could not help involuntarily blessing him as he passed before us into his halls and libraries, to show us fine collections of books, and armour, and weapons.

"Of the former it is enough to say, that of the works of Scotsmen, he has perhaps the finest collection extant; volumes anent the Cameronians, and dark books on witchcraft and gramery abound. His armour and weapons merit a longer description -they are numerous and of great value. The fowling-piece of Rob-Roy, and the pistol of Claverhouse, both of rich workmanship, hang together; the sword of the great Montrose is locked carefully in a sort of relique-chest. There are the arms, too, of the warlike name of Scott: we neglected to enquire for the lance of the poet's ancestor, Swinton, of Swinton, with which he slew the Duke of Clarence in the battle of Beague: the wound inflicted by the Scottish lance is imitated on the cheek of the alabaster figure on the tomb in Canterbury cathedral. We looked at those torture-irons called 'thumbikins' in the history of the persecutions in Scotland; but the relique which struck us most was a plain piece of well tempered steel, being neither more nor less than the head of an English arrow found on the field of Bannockburn, several feet below the surface. It was small, compact, and fit for the working day: the barbs on the sides lie closer than what is common, and the thickness of the shaft must have been little more than that of a tobacco pipe. We had often heard of English arrows, but we never saw one before; and we believe that of Abbotsford is almost the only one : we involuntarily repeated the lines—

And there were many vainly thought,
But for a vaunt such weapons wrought,
But little deemed their force to feel
Through bars of brass and links of steel,
When rattling down on Flodden vale,
The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail.'

"As we were walking through the house, an open carriage came to the door, and the Baronet said, 'if we wished to take a ride, he would be glad to accompany us, and show us what was most worth seeing in the land.' It is needless to say with what what joy we stepped into the carriage."

THE BORDERS.

"All the blue bonnets are over the border."

BURNS.

Of the different regions into which Scotland is divided, it may be said, that, as the Highlands possess the greatest attraction for the lover of nature in her sublimest and most interesting forms, so the Border has charms to fascinate all those who delight in romantic enterprize, and poetic fancy. This boundary between two warlike and long hostile kingdoms, became naturally the great theatre on which the achievements of the feudal ages were performed. The habitual hostility, too, with which the inhabitants of the opposite side of the march viewed each other, gave rise to constant scenes of minor exploits, which, though they could not find a place in history, kept alive the habits of activity, enterprize, and daring valour, which held men's minds in a state of perpetual excitement. The same causes which rendered the Borders the theatre of war, rendered it also a land of song; for true and native poetry is the result, not of monastic and studious seclusion, but of those eventful circumstances which fire the imagination, and melt the heart. Another effect of this constant state of warfare upon the Borders, was the construction of "towers of defence," which, if they could not aspire to the rank of fortresses, might at least afford protection against sudden inroad; and, if they could not repel an invader, might retard his progress. These

could not, indeed, rival the pomp and magnificence of those mansions which, in the interior of Scotland, and the less troubled districts of England, were erected by the great nobles, for the display of baronial grandeur. A square tower, built on a height, with walls of immense thickness, and a few narrow loop-holes for the admission of light, and the discharge of missile weapons, formed usually the whole array of a Border castle. Some, however, belonging to the Border nobility, was built on a scale of greater magnificence; they are placed, generally, in a picturesque situation, and all of them recall events of history and tradition which must be interesting to a large portion of the present generation. The striking aspect, indeed, presented by a country which, after having long been the theatre of national hostility, has remained some time in a state of peace, affords a contrast as inviting as it is romantic and luxuriant. Numerous castles left to moulder in massive ruins; fields where the memory of ancient battles still lives among the descendants of those by whom they were fought or witnessed; the very line of demarcation which, separating the two countries, though no longer hostile, induces the inhabitants of each to cherish their separate traditions, unite to render these regions interesting to the topographical historian or antiquary.

At

The most remarkable Border antiquities of the Britons are the extensive entrenchments, known by the name of the Catrail, and the remains of an irregular hill fort, situated on the grounds of Mr. Pringle, of Fairnlee.* The Roman antiquities here met with, besides their great roads, and the remains of the wall of Antonius, consist chiefly of arms and sepulchral monuments. length the Saxons, partly as conquerors, and partly as refugees, came and filled the whole low country of Scotland, and finally communicated their language to that part of the kingdom. The system of clanship, which was originally Celtic, and unknown to the Saxons, was borrowed by the latter, and adopted on the Borders to nearly as great an extent as in the Highlands. Of this remarkable form of political association, a very striking pic

* For a very interesting account of the most remarkable incidents in Border history and tradition; see "The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland, comprising specimens of architecture and sculpture, and other vestiges of former ages, by WALTER SCOTT, Esq." To which the reader is referred for many curious anecdotes, and many views of manners, and antiquities.