The next objects of interest on the Tweed are the old House of Drumelzier and the picturesque remains of the ancient fortalice belonging to it, called Tinnis, or Thanes Castle, which stands on the top of a hill above the house. It is said that travellers of every description were compelled to pay homage to Sir James Tweedie, the haughty Baron of Drumelzier. It so happened, that on one occasion he was told that a stranger, attended by a very small retinue, had passed by his mansion without paying the usual compliments of obeisance to its lordly owner. Fuming with rage, he instantly got to horse, and putting himself at the head of sixteen lances, all mounted like himself on white horses, as was his fancy, he pur- | sued the stranger hot foot, until he overtook him at Glenwhappen, where, having found the man he sought, in the midst of his friends, he imperiously demanded to have him instantly given up to that corporal punishment which he was in the habit of inflicting in such cases. But what was the proud Tweedie's discomfiture when the stranger came forward, and was announced to him as James V., King of Scotland. Throw ing himself upon his knees, he received the gracious pardon of his sovereign, coupled with a few befitting admonitions, and then he slunk away back to his barbarous hold, with humbled and mortified pride. A certain John Bertram, who had acted as the king's guide on this occasion, through the Drumelzier territory, received from his sovereign the lands of Duckpool for his reward. The grave of the celebrated Merlin, the wizard and soothsayer, was said to be under a thorn tree, a little below the churchyard of this parish. An ancient prophecy existed regarding it, in the following rude distich :--

Hill are the remains of an ancient British camp;
and it is worth remarking, that in the parish of
Glenholm alone there are the ruins of no less
than six old castles or towers. In a plain by the
side of the Tweed are several mounds, in one of
which was found a singular stone building, with
a large stone cover, and within it was the skele-
ton of a man, with bracelets on his arms. An
urn was found near to the skeleton.
gather no information from any quarter as to
what was the material of which the bracelets
were composed, or what were the contents of the
urn.

We can

Angling

The general character of the river Tweed all along that part of its course which we have hitherto traced, is that of an exceedingly clear stream, trotting without any great degree of violence—that is to say, when not whipped into fury by the angry spirit of the storm and the flood-and finding its peaceful and harmless way over a beautiful pebbly bottom, and winding now to one side of the narrow valley, and now to the other, its banks being low, and rarely, though occasionally, fringed by a few dropping alders- the mountain side being generally green and unbroken, though here and there displaying accumulations of slaty stones, of a rich purple colour, indicating the nature of the rock under the surface. for salmon in these waters is quite unavailing, as the fish that escape all the snares and interruptions that they have to encounter between Berwick and Peebles, do not arrive in these parts until they are quite out of season. But these are beautiful spawning grounds. It is not, however, always easy to defend the poor animals, whilst engaged in this interesting occupation, from the cruel leister or waster of the poacher. Like many "When Tweed and Pawsayle meet at Merlin's grave, other things, that are very nefarious in practice, Scotland and England shall one monarch have.” there is much in the most destructive of practices And this was said to have been fulfilled by an that is productive of romantic and picturesque extraordinary flood which took place on the day effect;-the darkness of the night-the blaze of that James VI. of Scotland was crowned king of the torches upon the water-the flash of the England, when the river Tweed so far overflowed foam from the bare limbs of the men who are its banks, that it met and united itself to the burn wading through the shallows, with their long of Pawsayle, at the spot which tradition had al-poles, and many pointed and barbed iron heads-ways marked out as the grave of Merlin. But or glancing from the prow of the boat, moving this tradition would appear to be extremely apo- slowly over the deeper water, with its strange, cryphal, seeing that we cannot understand how unearthly figures in it. But let those who would it happened that Merlin, who was a Welsh bard, find this given with a perfection that realizes the and who was born at Caermarthen, about the year life, read the description of such a scene by Sir 460, should have wandered hither to find a grave. Walter Scott, in "Guy Mannering”—where they The only way in which it appears to be possible will find a piece of exquisite painting from nature, to reconcile this difficulty is by supposing, what is drawn by one who could use a leister on an occaby no means unlikely, that this may have been sion with any man upon Tweed. Upon the whole, the grave of some Scottish bard or soothsayer, we should be disposed to think that the English whose fame having been as great in his own gentleman of rank, who is mentioned in a note in country as that of Merlin was all over Britain, the edition of Pennecuik of 1815, as having been inand in the same way, may have had that distin- terrogated, after his return to his own country, as guished name conferred on him by his country- to what he thought of Tweeddale, was pretty correct men as a mark of their admiration of him. in the reply he gave-"That he believed he could describe its surface in three words, as it almost everywhere consisted of a hill, a road, and a water;" and the author of the note goes on very successfully to add-" which, indeed, with the addition of another hill, rising immediately from the opposite brink of the accompanying stream,

Nearly opposite to Drumelzier, Biggar Water, augmented by that of Skirling, falls into the Tweed from the left. The banks of both these streams are thickly sown with Roman and other remains. They are, moreover, ornamented with several gentlemen's residences. On the Rachan

below the road, generally constitute the sum total | little sparkling stream as a tributary from them

of the objects that present themselves to the traveller. A flat, through which its glittering current meanders and ripples over a pebbly channel-a shepherd's cot, at the side of a rill in a recess, sometimes sheltered by a few trees or bushes-a cairn pointing the summit of a pyramidal mountain-a ring, once necessary to secure the herds and flocks, surrounding the upper part of an eminence-a deserted tower on the brow of a projecting height, of which there are many in the country, erected for habitations, for defence, and for beacons-whilst at times a mansion, embosomed in wood, occasionally animates the prospect.' We cannot say that our recent observation enables us to assert, that the thirty-two years that have passed away since this description was given, though they may have somewhat narrowed the confines to which it was once applicable, have to any great degree enabled the face of the country to outgrow its accuracy.

to the river. Sir James's grandson, the present Sir John Murray Nasmyth-who fortunately happens to be a gentleman of remarkably fine taste has done everything in his power to improve the beauty of this charming spot. The whole glen | running up into the hills has been planted. The grand old wood, which hangs on the mountain sloping into the park, has had its terraces restored and added to; a new and very appropriate Scottish manorial house has been built, with all the necessary adjuncts of terraces, flower gardens, statues, vases, dials, flights of steps, and fountains; and the whole now exhibits itself as one of the most perfect bijoux that can be found anywhere in Scotland, or perhaps elsewhere, as a gentleman's residence. Some of the trees here are of large proportions, especially when we consider the upland country in which they grow; and we shall take the liberty of quoting from our own edi. tion of Gilpin's "Forest Scenery," published above ten years ago, in order again to record the dimensions of one or two of them as they then existed. The horse-chesnut, which is a tree that was introduced into Europe from the East about the year 1550, could not have been transplanted into Scotland sooner than about the year 1620. Two of these trees, growing on a part of the lawn at Dalwick, which was formerly the garden, are certainly the oldest and finest in Scotland; or, perhaps, we should say that there are none equal to them, so far as we know, in Britain. They stand twelve feet apart from each other, but they support a mass of foliage that appears to belong but to one head, which takes a beautiful form, and covers an area of ground the diameter of which is ninetysix feet. The largest of the two is in girth, immediately above the root, sixteen and a half

66

But, below this, we find that, for some miles at least, the industry of man has done so much by cultivation and planting, both in the wide bottom of the valley, and on the sides of the hills, as to give to the whole quite the effect of an English country-the fields being well cultivated, and bounded by hedge rows. These enrichments are to be attributed to the exertions of two proprietors in the middle of last century-we mean to those of Sir Alexander Murray, of Stanhope, who enclosed and planted most part of the property of Stobo, which rises abruptly upwards from the left bank of the river, and for which much was done in addition by the late Sir James Montgomery, father of the present Sir Graham Montgomery. Sir James built the present Stobo Castle in 1810. The church of Stobo is above 500 years old. It is Gothic, and extremely curious. The other pro-feet-at three feet high, it is twelve and a half prietor, to whom we have alluded, was Sir James Nasmyth, of Posso, whose improvements and plantations on the estate of Dalwick (for some time very improperly called New Posso, but now restored to its old name), which is on the right bank of the stream, were always held so much in admiration by the whole country, that comparisons were made to them as affording a measure of excellence by which to estimate others. He was a gentleman of much scientific acquirement; and, in addition to his ordinary gardens, he created others for extensive botanical collections, with green houses for rare plants; and on these he put the strikingly appropriate motto:"Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of

these."

The house was square and ancient. The grounds were executed by Sir James, in the formal linear style of gardening, with avenues, vistas, ponds, statues, &c.; but the effect that resulted from all this, after the timber had undergone many years' growth, was extremely pleasing. The place occupies the whole of a considerably wide plain, stretching between the Tweed and the hills rising steeply behind it; and these are cut into by a glen, which, running up into their bosoms for some three or four miles, brings down a very pretty

feet-and it is of the same girth at six feet from the ground. The smaller tree is twelve and a half feet in circumference at the base, and ten feet at three feet high.' "Sir John Nasmyth has nine very picturesque larches at Dalwick. They take singularly irregular and fantastic forms, and throw out gigantic limbs. They were planted in 1725, a date which he says in his communication to us is doubtful, but which his father, the late Baronet, always positively declared was correct, being what his father, who planted them, had always told him, was the exact period of the establishment of the larches at Dalwick." The three largest of these are of the following girths: the crooked larch at Dalwick measures in circumference, at seven feet from the ground, that is, immediately under the spread of the limbs, fifteen feet; at four feet from the ground it measures nineteen feet, and its circumference immediately above the roots is nineteen feet. This singularly picturesque tree had one of its most important limbs torn away by lightning in the summer of 1820. The second larch tree is twelve feet in girth at three feet from the ground, and fifteen feet in girth immediately above the roots; and the third is eleven feet nine inches at three feet from the ground, and fifteen feet in circum

ference immediately above the roots. There is an avenue of silver firs at Dalwick, most of the trees of which are nearly of equal magnitude, and all beautifully feathered down to within six feet of their roots. These were planted by the grandfather of the present Baronet, in 1735. One of these, which has by no means any great apparent pre-eminence over the others, measures seventeen feet in circumference immediately above the roots, eleven feet and a half at five feet from the ground, and ten feet and a half at thirty feet from the ground. The stem tapers up like a fishingrod to the very top; and the whole tree contains four hundred and ninety-five feet eleven inches, two parts of cubic measure, of timber; or, as we may safely say now, above five hundred cubic feet of measurable timber. These measurements speak well for the growth of wood in these the higher districts of the Tweed; indeed, extensive plantation appears now to be the only thing that is wanting to improve, not only the appearance of the country, but its climate.

At about half way between Stobo and Peebles, the river Lyne joins the Tweed from the left. It is supported by several tributaries, of which, perhaps, the Tairth is one of the most important. Their valleys afford some very pretty snatches of country here and there, and much has been done for their cultivation and ornament. There are some important country residences also on their banks; but the most beautiful and interesting of these is Castle Craig, the seat of Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael, Bart. The plantations about it are of immense extent, very well grown, and exceedingly thriving. The house has little architectural character; but its site, on a swelling knoll, whence it commands views of the different valleys throughout the greater part of their extent, with long vistas of thick forest running up some of them, and surrounded by the lofty green hills which rise everywhere around, is altogether very charming. For our part, we regret here, as we do everywhere else in similar cases, that the name, which is modern, should have been fastened on it, instead of its ancient name of Kirkurd. The ruins of the old kirk of this name, with its ancient burial-ground, and many curious and picturesque monumental remains, now form the most interesting features in a beautiful flowergarden in the grounds, carefully preserved as they have been by, and enriched and hung with, shrubs and creepers of all kinds, so as to produce a spot of ground adapted for the most luxurious retirement and contemplation, calculated to awake meditations of the most devout and sublime description, and to bring frail man into direct communication with his Creator. There are several remains of British and Roman camps and stations in this neighbourhood. Below Kirkurd, the Tairth runs through a series of valuable water meadows, in a deep and uniform stream, resembling in character an English river, and we are much mistaken if it be not full of fine fat trouts. Fain would we have been enabled to have asserted this on our own angling experience, but so it happens that, often as we have enjoyed the hospitalities of Castle Craig,

and albeit that we were always filled with the deadly intent of making terrific work among the finny fry of the Tairth, the weather, which is not wont to be on every occasion friendly to the angler, always proved so unpropitious as to render it quite useless for us to put up our rod.

Perhaps the most interesting object connected with these tributary glens, now under our immediate consideration, is Drochil Castle, which stands between the Tairth and the Lyne, on the swelling ground a little above their junction. Of this Dr. Pennecucik says, "The nether Drochil hath been designed more for a palace than a castle of defence, and is of mighty bulk, founded, and more than half built, but never finished, by the then great and powerful Regent, James Douglas, Earl of Mortoun. Upon the front of the south entry of this Castle was J., E. O. M., James, Earl of Mortoun,' in raised letters, with the fetterlock, as Warden of the Borders. This mighty earl, for the pleasure of the place and the salubrity of the air, designed here a noble recess and retirement from worldly business, but was prevented by his unfortunate and miserable death, three years after, anno 1581; being accused, condemned, and executed by the maiden at the Cross of Edinburgh, as art and part of the murder of our King Henry, Earl of Darnley, father to King James the Sixth. This fatal instrument, at least the pattern thereof, the cruel Regent had brought from abroad, to behead the Laird of Pennecuick of that Ilk, who, notwithstanding, died in his bed, while the unfortunate earl was the first himself that hanselled that merciless maiden, which proved so soon after his own executioner." The maiden, which is a rude species of guillotine, is still preserved in the museum of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. The site of this noble and interesting ruin is extremely beautiful between the two streams; and at about four miles above the junction of the Lyne with the Tweed, there are the vestiges of two very entire camps on the hill above it, which are called the Chesters, and there are several others in the neighbourhood.

Immediately in the angle between the Lyne and the Tweed, and above their junction, the summits of their rather elevated banks are connected by a heathy flat of considerable height. This is called the Sheriff's Muir. It commands extensive views up and down the valley of the Tweed, and up the tributary valleys of the Lyne, Tairth, and Mannor. It presents several appearances of monumental antiquities, which would lead to the conclusion that it had been the scene of some very ancient hostile struggle; whilst some stones would seem to indicate the site of a Druidical temple, and this with great probability, seeing that the site is just such as the Druids would have especially chosen. The name of the Sheriff's Muir, or Shire Muir, was given to this place because, when war occurred between England and Scotland, this was the spot on which the Sheriff was wont to summon the militia of the county to meet previous to their going on active service.

We must now go over to the right bank of the Tweed, in order to give a very general sketch of

himself a small cottage, very much in the manner described by Sir Walter. This hovel we have seen, and the only difference between it and the imaginary one on the Mucklestone Moor is, that David had the good taste to select a spot sheltered by one or two good trees, which altogether took away that "ghastly" air and effect with which Sir Walter wished to envelop his Black Dwarf's dwelling. David's cot was built on Sir James Nasmyth's property, without any leave being asked or given; but the Baronet was too goodnatured to give him the smallest disturbance on that score. We quote the following account of this most extraordinary character, at some length, from Mr. Robert Chambers, of Edinburgh, who, a high authority at all times, is the highest possible in regard to anything connected with his native county of Peeblesshire :—

the Mannor Water, a very beautiful, and more- | and misanthropical disposition, which he is said over, a very fine angling stream, which is made to have had from his birth, had been still more up of many branches, all discharging themselves soured by harsh treatment, and goaded to madinto its quiet and retired glen from some very ness by the cruel gibes of those who, forgetting steep and lofty surrounding mountains. There that they called themselves Christians, and being are many curious remains, both of British and possessed of the malevolent feelings of devils, Roman origin, to be found here, and it is filled made sport of the affliction with which Almighty with spots associated with the romantic times of God had been pleased to visit their poor neighBorder warfare. Among these are several Peel-bour, he retired into this lonely glen and built towers, each of which has, doubtless, its particular legends attached to it. Castle Hill, situated on the top of a steep knoll, is a lofty ruin, the history of which is little known. One of the best preserved morceaux of this description, is the old shattered tower of Posso, from which the proprietor, Sir John Nasmyth, Bart., takes his title. It stands prettily upon a knoll, the stream of the Mannor dancing past it, and glittering in the sunshine-and its weatherbeaten, war-worn, and shivered form, appears to be quite in keeping with the whole scene-and especially with the misty shapes of Scrape and the other high mountains that rise towards the upper end of the glen. There were a great many timber trees about this part of the valley, but they were cut down a good many years ago, by Sir John Nasmyth's predecessor, and one or two only remain about the ruin to tell what their companions were. One of the most interesting remnants of the real good old Border times, is that of "the Thieves' Road," so called vituperatively by those tasteless individuals who could not see the romantic effect produced by their cattle being harried and driven off by it, by a parcel of English moss-troopers-its proper name being "the MossTroopers' Road"—and it served equally well for the nonce, for the removal and drift of cattle, whether they were bound southwards from Scotland, or northwards from England. Although His habits were, in many respects, sinits vestiges are very imperfect, it may be traced in a strictly linear direction from the Border, gular, and indicated a mind congenial to its uncouth tabernacle. A jealous, misanthropical, and irritable temper over Dollar Law and Scrape, and so crossing the was his prominent characteristic. The sense of his deTweed below Stobo, and running directly north-formity haunted him like a phantom, and the insults and ward; and doubtless Rob Roy himself knew every inch of it well.

This accidental allusion to Sir Walter Scott's hero reminds us that the valley of the Mannor Water is rendered peculiarly interesting by the circumstance of its having been the residence, in the beginning of the present century, of David Ritchie, the original dwarf, whose form and history suggested to Sir Walter his imaginary character of the Black Dwarf, Canny Elshie. Sir Walter Scott tells us, in his introduction to one of the late editions of the work, "that the personal description of Elshender, of Mucklestane-moor, has been generally allowed to be a tolerably exact and unexaggerated portrait of David, of Mannor Water. He was not quite three feet and a half high, since he could stand upright in the door of his mansion, which was just that height." For our part, we cannot help thinking that the character of the real David will be found more interesting than that of the ideal Elshender. He was the son of a slate quarrier in Tweeddale-was bred as a brush-maker in Edinburgh-travelled into various parts-and, after that naturally morose

"His skull, which was of an oblong and rather an unusual shape, was said to be of such strength that he could strike it with ease through the panel of a door, or the end of a barrel. His laugh is said to have been quite horrible; and his screech-owl voice, shrill, uncouth, and dissonant, corresponded well with his other peculiarities. There was nothing very uncommon about his dress. He usually wore an old slouched hat, when he went abroad; and when at home a sort of cowl or night-cap. He never wore shoes, being unable to adapt them to his misshapen, finlike feet, but always had both feet and legs quite concealed, and wrapt up with pieces of cloth. He always went with a sort of pole, or pike-staff, considerably taller than himself.

scorn to which this exposed him, had poisoned his heart with fierce and bitter feelings, which, from other points in his character, do not appear to have been more largely infused into his original temperament than that of his fellow-men. He detested children, on account of their propensity to insult and persecute him. To strangers he was generally reserved, crabbed, and surly; and though he by no means refused assistance or charity, he seldom either expressed or exhibited much gratitude; even towards persons who had been his greatest benefactors, and who possessed the greatest share of his good-will, he frequently displayed much caprice and jealousy. A lady, who had known him from his infancy, says, that although father's family as it was in his nature to show to any, yet Davie showed as much respect and attachment to her they were always obliged to be very cautious in their deportment towards him. One day, having gone to visit him with another lady, he took them through his garden, and was showing them, with much pride and good humour, all his rich and tastefully assorted borders, when they happened to stop near a plot of cabbages, which had been somewhat injured by caterpillars. Davie, observing one of the ladies smile, instantly assumed his savage scowling aspect, rushed among the cabbages, and dashed them to pieces with his Ként, exclaiming, 'I hate the worms, for they mock me!' Another lady, likewise a friend and old acquaintance of his, very unintentionally gave Davie mortal offence, on a similiar occasion. Throwing back his jealous glance, as he was ushering her into his