he hills, whether smooth or stony, uncultivated or covered with
ripe corn, had the same pensive softness. Near the corn tracts were
large farm-houses, with many corn-stacks; the stacks and house and
out-houses together, I recollect, in one or two places upon the hills, at
a little distance, seemed almost as large as a small village or hamlet.
It was a clear autumnal day, without wind, and, being Sunday, the
business of the harvest was suspended, and all that we saw, and felt, and
heard, combined to excite one sensation of pensive and still pleasure.

Passed by several old halls yet inhabited, and others in ruin; but I have
hardly a sufficiently distinct recollection of any of them to be able to
describe them, and I now at this distance of time regret that I did not
take notes. In one very sweet part of the vale a gate crossed the road,
which was opened by an old woman who lived in a cottage close to it; I
said to her, 'You live in a very pretty place!' 'Yes,' she replied, 'the
water of Tweed is a bonny water.' The lines of the hills are flowing and
beautiful, the reaches of the vale long; in some places appear the
remains of a forest, in others you will see as lovely a combination of
forms as any traveller who goes in search of the picturesque need desire,
and yet perhaps without a single tree; or at least if trees there are,
they shall be very few, and he shall not care whether they are there or
not.

The road took us through one long village, but I do not recollect any
other; yet I think we never had a mile's length before us without a
house, though seldom several cottages together. The loneliness of the
scattered dwellings, the more stately edifices decaying or in ruin, or,
if inhabited, not in their pride and freshness, aided the general effect
of the gently varying scenes, which was that of tender pensiveness; no
bursting torrents when we were there, but the murmuring of the river was
heard distinctly, often blended with the bleating of sheep. In one place
we saw a shepherd lying in the midst of a flock upon a sunny knoll, with
his face towards the sky,--happy picture of shepherd life.

The transitions of this vale were all gentle except one, a scene of which
a gentleman's house was the centre, standing low in the vale, the hills
above it covered with gloomy fir plantations, and the appearance of the
house itself, though it could scarcely be seen, was gloomy. There was an
allegorical air--a person fond of S