to gather golden clouds in pomp around
his setting. A gorgeous glimmer, gold and red, is thrown over the whole
sky. Keeping close beside the ever-widening stream, we dash through
little clachans on the bank, beneath long, over-arching avenues of
trees, and past the gates of ivy-mantled homes of blessed outlook. Here
a croquet party stops playing, for the grass is getting wet with
evening dew, and there, in the river, and up to the knees in it, are
half a dozen anglers sweeping the wave with their spurious fly. Peebles
is not far off, and the quiet nooks of the high road are filled with
pedestrians. The entrance to Peebles is exquisite. The long rows of
trees, the situation of the road high above the river in the dell,
combine to make an eerie blend of sound from sighing leaves and gurgling
waters. An old Border peel, Needpath Castle, stands near the straggling
outskirts of the town, and proves, by its choice situation on the knoll,
that our cattle-reiving ancestors were quite alive to the advantages of
a good view. It was a stirring quarter here in the days of the old
Scotch kings. The deadly thrust of lance has reddened every burn in the
wide Borderland. Every brae has had its gory bicker.

On this _tournee_ I had the pleasure of giving a lecture on "Scotch
Ballads," at a little village not more than half a mile from the
birthplace of Dandie Dinmont. The place was full of sturdy, firm-knit
Borderers, descendants of the dare-devil troopers who wrought such
devastation along the Marches when the Stuarts reigned in Holyrood.
Fresh, ruddy faces, coloured by breeze and sun; hard, keen, inquisitive
looks; intelligence such as comes from knowledge of nature, hereditary
quickness and good circulation of blood: all these could be instantly
seen by glancing round the audience. (How insignificant a mere bookworm
or scholar feels among a company of brawny Liddesdale farmers!) During
the lecture, it was easy to note by the grim smile on their faces, their
flashing eyes and the way they gripped their big sticks, that the old
stirring rhymes of fight struck a sympathetic chord in their hearts. Now
and again, during the address, one could see the lips of the listeners
moving in soft repetition of the lines, as some typical quotations were
being made.

It is not likely that there has been much change or influx of population
in these districts for centuries. The alertness and intelligence of the
natives must be to some extent an inheri