and perform all the services preparatory to, at, and after a good dinner, with satisfaction to his master and credit to himself, "Why, sure, 'twould be aisy to see all that, before he was a week in the place. What business would he have to look for the situation at all, if he didn't know

he was fit for it? He saw good sarvice in great houses afore now, and wasn't trusting to what Mr. Macarthy might say of his abilities; for to tell nothing but the truth, they had but a slobbering way of doing business in Slobberly Hall."

THE Tweed! The silver Tweed! Gentlest of readers, you may perhaps wonder that, in apparent opposition to the sage advices of our much venerated friend Major Ramsbottom, we should now be disposed to bring before you this most important Scottish river, at so early a period of our campaign. But, to tell you the truth, whilst we by no means intend to hold ourselves responsible for acting at all times under the guidance of particular reasons, we yet confess that we are influenced at present by some which we hold to be very important. In the first place, you have been kindly pleased to give so courteous a reception to our little Jack-snipe of a Jordan-which, as we must confess to you, as a friend, under the rose, we, partly from mere waggery, thought it advisable to place before you, as our first dish-that we think it but fair, thus speedily to reward you with something really substantial, with what the French would call a" piece de resistance," and which John Bull would denominate "a cut and come again." And, secondly, although the Tweed may indeed be considered as one of the chiefs among our Scottish fluvial divinities, yet he is not the first, but only one of the first; and although, when he shall be disposed of, we cannot exactly say of him as King Henry did of the loss of Earl Percy,

"We trust we have within our realm Five hundred as good as he❞— Yet we shall not be left without a goodly array of his brother river gods at our back. Then let our courteous reader, a la bonne heure, fall briskly on the feast which we shall speedily spread before him, assuring himself whilst he does so, that he may be in no dread of future starvation, seeing that our garrison is stored in so ample a manner, as to enable us to withstand the siege of a lifetime.

The great valley which affords a course for the Tweed, when taken in conjunction with those minor branch valleys which give passage to its various tributaries, may be called the great ScotoArcadian district of pastoral poetry and song. Who could enumerate the many offerings which have been made to the rural muses in this happy country? for where there are poetry and song, happiness must be presupposed, otherwise neither the one nor the other could have birth. Doubtless, those ancient verses and melodies, which have for so many ages charmed, not only the inhabitants of Scotland, but those of countries which have always been held as much more refined in musical science, were produced at a time, when

the original pastoral simplicity of the country of the Tweed had been but little innovated on by the operations of the plough. The era of iron skull caps, jingling shirts of mail, back and breast pieces, spurs-with rowels that might have been fitted into the sky on an occasion, to supply the place of any of the fixed stars that had fallen out of their places-buff jerkins, lances, and sure footed moss-trooping horses, that knew how, instinctively, to pick their way by moonlight, or even perchance, when moon there was none, from hag to hag, had for some ages passed away. The thick forests had been gladed by the hands of Time and of Nature, in such a way as might have thrown any such celebrated landscape gardener, as Mr. Craigie Halkett of Hallhill into absolute ecstacies of delight, and furnished him with a thousand useful professional hints. Peace had long floated over the whole of these pastoral scenes, as if the Halcyon bird had built its nest among them. The deer, "both doe and roe, and red deer good," had not yet been quite exterminated from "the gay greenwood." The reign of Nature was undisturbed. The minutest flowerets were safe, except from the fingers of the swainwho might pluck them for the adornment of the shepherdess, whose love-chain he wore-or from the careless feet of the sheep or the kine, which they tended together. But so rapid and extensive have been the strides of cultivation in its progress from the sea upwards, even in our own time, that it is only towards the very upper part of its course that the words of the ancient ballad may now be with much literal truth applied :—

"What beauties does Flora disclose!

How sweet are her smiles upon Tweed!
Yet Mary's, still sweeter than those,
Both nature and fancy exceed.

No daisy nor sweet-blushing rose,
Nor all the gay flowers of the field,
Nor Tweed gliding gently through those,
Such beauty and pleasure do yield.
"The warblers are heard in the grove;
The linnet, the lark, and the thrush,
The blackbird and sweet cooing dove,
With music enchant every bush.
Come let us go forth to the mead,
Let's see how the primroses spring,
We'll lodge in some village on Tweed,
And love while the feathered folks sing."

But one of the most wonderful facts, in regard to this change on the face of the country, is the circumstance, that the plough seems to have banished song altogether from this tuneful district, for the population have become the most

were discussed. No body of bishops or Presbyterian elders of kirks, either Established or Free, could have behaved with more decorum, or could have shaken their heads more wisely; and when the conference broke up, we had not a single linger

The only portion of the course of the Tweed that may now be called truly pastoral is that which is included within those lofty mountains that encircle its head, and there, indeed, the climate may not be always so genial as to induce the growth of a very abundant Flora. This part of the country might with propriety be called the Region of Colleys; for here they abound, and maintain a strict, though gentle and very sensible, judicious, and temperate control over the woolly inhabitants of the green mountain-sides. We have travelled by accident through this country very lately, but we have the greatest pleasure in recollecting our passage through it in 1807, when on our way homewards from what we might very well call our travels in England, from their unusually extensive and comprehensive nature. We quite well remember sitting on a dyke by the road-side for nearly an hour with a shepherd of those parts, whilst, at our request, he despatched his dog over to the opposite hill, the face of which rose steeply backwards for nearly two miles, and stretched about double that space to right and left. The intelligence displayed by the creature was infinitely beyond anything we could have previously conceived. The moment he had compelled the brigade of bleaters to perform the evolution which his master's first signal had dictated, he sat down in his distant position, with his eyes fixed upon him; and, though certainly not nearer to us than from half-a-mile to a mile, as the crow would fly, he at once caught up every successive signal, however slight, from his commanding officer, and put the troops into active motion, to carry the wished-for manoeuvre into effect. In this manner, they were made to visit every part of the hill-face in succession-at one time keeping in compact phalanx, as if prepared to resist cavalry, and at another scouring away and scattering themselves over the mountain, as if skirmishing, like Tirailleurs, against some unseen enemy advancing from over the hill-top beyond; and it appeared to us, that, great as we had always considered the talents of Lieut. Lightbody, the able adjutant of the distinguished corps we had then recently left, we must feel ourselves compelled to declare that he was a mere tyro compared to this wonderful canine tactician. And then, as to council, as well as war, we have seen some halfdozen of these highly gifted animals meet together from different parts of the mountains and glens, as if by appointment, at the sunny nook of some fauld dyke, and there, seated on their haunches, hold a conference in which we, who were watch

ness which had been under discussion, had been temperately settled in the wisest and most satisfactory manner; and we could not help thinking that some useful lessons might have been taken, from what we saw, as to the proper mode of conducting such meetings. For our own part, we confess we should rather be put in possession of a picture of such a canine conference, painted by the wonderful pencil of Landseer, than that of any other similar convocation of human beings that we know of.

During those barbarous times, when border raids were in continual activity, and when no one, on either side of the marches, or debateable land, could lay down his head to sleep at night, without the chance of having to stand to his defence, or perhaps to mount and ride ere morning, the valleys of the Tweed and its tributaries must have witnessed many strange and stirring events and cruel slaughters. To defend themselves from these predatory incursions, the Scottish monarchs erected strong castles along the lower part of the course of the Tweed, and the chain of these places of strength was carried upwards, quite to the source of the streams by the various landowners. These last were either Towers or Peels-these different names being given, rather to distinguish the structures as to their magnitude and importance, than from any great difference of planthe tower possessing greater accommodations, and being much the larger and more impregnable in strength of the two. The Peels rarely contained more than three stories, which were generally all vaulted. To that in the basement-which was often used to thrust cattle into, at a moment of sudden alarm, and which sometimes had vaults under it-there was a direct entrance from without, which was well defended. This apartment had frequently no communication with those above, whilst, in some instances, access to it was obtained downwards through a trap-door in the floor and vaulted roof. Sometimes the upper apartments were approached by a small spiral stair, from a little well defended door, in an angle of the basement, but generally they were entered from an outer door in the wall, on the same level as the apartments of the second storey, and the access to this door was by a ladder, which was drawn up, after use, into the little fortalice. These strongholds, being intended for the general advantage and preservation of all the inhabitants of the valley, were built alternately on both sides of the river, and in a continued series, so as to have a view one of another; so that a fire, kindled on the top of any one of them, was immediately responded to, in the same way, by all the others in succession; the smoke giving the signal by day and the flame by night-thus spreading the alarm through a whole country of seventy miles in extent, in

place, down into the valley through which it pursues its course onwards to the sea; and, in so doing, we cannot pass over the small Inn of Tweedhope-foot, "where," says old Pennecuick, "there lived, in my time, an honest fellow called Jamie Welsch, ironically nicknamed The Buirn of Tweedhope-foot, well known for his huge bulk and strength, being a perfect Milo, with a heart and courage conform." What a fellow for a fictionmonger to manufacture a character out of! It seems to us quite wonderful that Scott should have never thought of appropriating him.

As the river goes on, it is rapidly augmented by the accession of so many streams, coming in from either side, as to render it impossible to notice them all within any reasonable space. Numerous cairns, supposed to have been thrown up by the Romans to guide the way, are seen along the road between Tweedhope-foot and the Bield. At the upper part of the Hawkshaw stream is Falla Moss, where Porteous of Hawkshaw, at the head of some of the country people, surprised a party of sixteen of Cromwell's horsemen, who had come from the camp at Biggar. After securing them, they butchered these innocent men, one by one, in cold blood; and one individual, having given his blow with too much tenderness, his victim so far recovered strength as to escape for a few miles, when he was pursued and murdered by numberless cruel wounds. These unhappy men were buried in the Falla Moss; and, a little to the east, there is the Resting Stone, where an unfortunate woman perished in the snow. Opposite to the foot of Hawkshawbank," says Pennecuick, "in a kairn beside the high road, is the Giant's Grave; so called from a huge, mighty fellow that robbed all on the way, but was at length, from a mount on the other side of the river, surprised and shot to death, as tradition goes." Near Monzion, on the banks of the Fruid river, there is the grave of a certain Marion Chisholm, who is said to have brought out the plague hither from Edinburgh, and infected all the people of the neighbourhood, by means of a bundle of clothes she carried with her, so that many died, and were buried by their terrified survivors in the ruins of their own houses, which were pulled down over their dead bodies so as to form their graves.

Tweedsmuir Kirk stands upon the right bank of the river, upon what is called the Quarter Knowe, which is supposed to have been a site of the Druids, from certain Druidical stones existing near it. The Tweed is here joined by the small river Talla, which is remarkable as having been the scene of the great Covenanting Convocation called the Meeting of Talla-Linns, which took place on the 15th of June, 1682, and at which, Sir Walter Scott informs us, that Douce David Deans was present as a youth. The strange metaphysical and polemical spirit, that had grown up among those unhappy sufferers was so overwhelming, that, instead of devoting their whole mind and attention, to the consideration of the real grievances and miseries they sustained, and of the best mode of procedure by which they could hope to get them removed, the whole scene was one

of universal disagreement and disunion, concerning the character and extent of such as were entirely frivolous and imaginary. "The place where this conference took place," says Scott, "was remarkably well adapted for such an assembly. It was a wild and very sequestered dell in Tweeddale, surrounded by high hills, and far remote from human habitation. A small river or mountain torrent called the Talla, breaks down the glen with great fury, dashing successively over a number of small cascades, which have procured the spot the name of Talla Linns. Here the leaders among the scattered adherents of the Covenantmen 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 turbulence, which the noise of the stream could not drown, points of controversy as empty and unsubstantial as its foam." This sad narration of human frailty forces upon our minds the recollection of the much more rational canine convocation, which we have already had occasion to describe! But in regard to painting, what a subject has Scott here sketched for some of our celebrated modern artists to fill up!

Before coming to the Bield and the Crook Inns, we pass the site of Oliver Castle, on the left bank of the stream, the very foundations of which are now so much gone as to render it difficult to discover the precise site where it stood. This was the ancient seat of the Frasers of Lovat, who, coming originally from France at a very early period of history, were thanes of the Isle of Man, and afterwards became possessed of large territories in the south of Scotland, especially in Tweeddale. They were high Sheriffs of the county of Peebles, and in the reigns of Alexander the II. and III., and during the minority of the Queen, Sir Simon Fraser, Lord of Oliver Castle, with the assistance of the Cummin, and with an army of 10,000 Scots, in one day, gave three successive and complete defeats to different bodies of Edward the First's army, amounting in all to not less than 30,000 men, near Roslin, on the 27th February, 1303. This hero was the Wallace of his time; and as his heroism and patriotism were not inferior to those of that celebrated Scottish champion, so his services to his country met with the same reward; for he was given into the hands of Edward, and died a martyr to his country's wrongs. By marriage with the family, this property came down, in modern times, into the possession of the Tweedies.

How great have been the changes which have taken place in this part of the valley since we first visited it, in 1807! The road, as you go along, now wears altogether an inhabited look, and little portions of plantations here and there give an air of shelter and civilization to it. Crook Inn does not now stand alone, and there is, comparatively speaking, an inviting air of comfort about it; but forty years ago it presented one of the coldest looking, cheerless places of reception

The

for travellers that we had ever chanced to behold. It stood isolated and staring in the midst of the great glen of the Tweed, closed in by high green sloping hills on all sides, with a square space between it and the highway enclosed off, to right and left, by two dry stone dykes, running at right angles from the line of its front towards the road. No one could look at it without thinking of winter, snow storms, and associations filled with pity for those whose hard fate it might be to be stormstaid here, as unwilling prisoners, with a country so deeply covered with snow, that there could be no hope of moving for many days. Such were our thoughts when we drove up to its door, we believe in the gloomy month of November, 1807, having come that morning from Moffat, and having no intention of staying longer here than to procure fresh post horses to our carriage, and then to proceed. We felt quite fidgetty and uncomfortable till we got away. The horses were no sooner put to the carriage, therefore, than we took our places. Rumbles had not yet come into existence, but there was a barouche box on the front part of the vehicle, where one of our friends seated himself, from choice, that he might have a better view of the scenery. We, with another, occupied the inside of the chariot, and the day being cold and raw, and threatening to drizzle a little, we made ourselves immediately snug by pulling up all the windows. The word "right!" was given, and the post-boy, wishing, as they generally do, to make a spurt at starting, dug the spurs into his horses, and whipped them at once into a gallop, and he went flying from the door, and round the corner into the road with such a birr, that he did not give time for the hind wheels to perform their necessary evolutions. By the same sort of centrifugal force, that gives impetus to the flight of a stone from a sling, therefore, they were thrown off sideways, at a tangent to the circle they should have described, with so great violence, that even the best London manufacture could not withstand it, especially after having been rattled, as they had been, for better than five months, over some of the roughest cross roads of England and Wales. In less than the twinkling of an eye, the whole spokes and felloes which had been so long happily banded together, en societé, in the two wheels, disparted company by general consent, and were torn and dislocated from each other, and scattered far and wide upon the road. The iron rims rolled off each singly to the opposite side of the way, and then fell over with a solemn, yet sullen sound of submission to their fate. The post-boy, utterly unconscious that anything was wrong, continued to whip and spur, to prove that his horses were good for that pace for at least a mile. Our philosophical friend on the box was too much engaged in tying his comforter, and in looking now at the post-boy, and now at the mountains on either side, to be made aware of anything that had happened. albeit that our shouts and the occasional uncouth bumping he received, might have excited in him some slight suspicion that there was something wrong. But we two insides were in a most perilous plight; for we were sleighing it, as it were,

along the hard turnpike road, upon the hind axletree; and many and furious were the bounds we made, as we for some time vainly tried to get down the front glasses. At length, after having gone some two hundred yards or more in this way, we succeeded in stopping the furious flight of our postilion; and having got out, we walked back in sad dismay to the Crook Inn, full of the conviction that stern fate had infallibly doomed us to all those miseries which had so recently filled us with pity for the supposed sufferings of others. We looked miserably and silently at each other, every face individually reflecting the inward horror that severally possessed us. We instinctively turned our eyes upwards to the portion of grim sky that stretched across above us, from one mountain top to another, like the dull, muggy old sail cloth that might form the roof of a booth at a fair. Wreaths of snow, twenty feet deep, seemed to be hanging over our heads, as if about to descend directly en masse into the glen, and so to swaddle up all nature, as to forbid all locomotion, however confined. We then looked at the cold, bare, inhospitable face of the Crook Inn before which we stood; and, like men desperately resolved to endure a fate, which, however cruel in itself, and suddenly brought upon us, could not now by any means be averted, we entered the house and seated ourselves on the wooden chairs in the best, but damp, dingy parlour, with its newly sanded floor, in the full conviction that this was to be our prison for some weeks to come at least. Our wreck was so complete, that not a hope remained. At length, curiosity led us to go out to listen to the conversation of a small group of persons that surrounded the carriage, each of whom was delivering his own sage remarks on this an event so worthy of speculation, in a district where events were few. One man, with a broad blue bonnet, proved to be a carrier, and owner of a horse and cart which stood hard by. After a little talk with him, he undertook, for a due consideration, to transport the carriage to Edinburgh, by binding the hinder part of it, whence the wheels were gone, to the tail of his cart, so that it should travel safely, though ignominiously, on its own two fore wheels, and with its back to the horse; and after this was arranged, we speedily discovered, with great delight, that the landlord could give us two post-chaises. These were instantly ordered out, and our persons and baggage being distributed between the two, we had the satisfaction of starting again from the door, at a good rattling pace, just as the first broad flakes of snow were beginning to fall, as the advanced guard of that heavy column that was about to descend and subdue and imprison the whole of that upland country. Such was our alarm that we never stopped, except to change horses, till we found ourselves in the Inn at Melrose, where we thanked our stars that we had so providentially escaped from the horrors of the Crook Inn. But now things are so changed, that even a confinement there, however annoying in itself in point of delay, would at least be attended with no apprehension of want of creature comforts.