e earth
Castles and towers,
The earth says to the earth
All shall be ours."

If half the grace of Melrose is lost by reason of its environment, the
situation of Dryburgh is queenly enough. It is assuredly the most
picturesque monastic ruin in Great Britain. Scott's is the all-absorbing
name, and as a matter of fact he would himself have become by
inheritance the laird of Dryburgh, but for the financial folly of a
spendthrift grand-uncle. "The ancient patrimony," he tells us, "was sold
for a trifle, and my father, who might have purchased it with ease, was
dissuaded by my grandfather from doing so, and thus we have nothing left
of Dryburgh but the right of stretching our bones there." So here, the
two Sir Walters, the two Lady Scotts, and Lockhart, await the breaking
light of morn. Dryburgh, be it noted, is in Berwickshire--in Mertoun
parish, where (at Mertoun House) Scott wrote the "Eve of St. John." Not
far off is Sandyknowe (not Smailholm, as it is generally designated)
Tower, the scene of the ballad, and the cradle of Scott's childhood,
where there awoke within him the first real consciousness of life, and
where he had his first impressions of the wondrously enchanted land that
lay within the comparatively small circle of the Border Country. Ruined
Roxburgh, between Tweed's and Teviot's flow, and the palatial Floors
Castle represent the best of epochs old and new, and even more than in
Scott's halcyon school days is Kelso the "Queen of the South Countrie."
Coldstream, lying in sylvan loveliness on the left bank of the Tweed--a
noble river here--has been the scene of many a memorable crossing from
both countries from the time of Edward I. to the Covenanting struggle.
So near the Border, Coldstream had at one time a considerable notoriety
for its runaway marriages, the most notable of which was Lord Brougham's
in 1819. Within an easy radius of Coldstream are Wark Castle, the mere
site of it rather--where in 1344 Edward III. instituted the Order of the
Garter; Twizel Bridge, with its single Gothic arch, cleverly crossed
by Surrey and his men (it is the identical arch) at Flodden, that
darkest of all dark fields for Scotland,

"Where shivered was fair Scotland's spear,
And broken was her shield."

Of Norham Castle, frowning like Carlisle, to the North, and set down as
it were to over-awe a kingdom, Scott's description is always the best.
Ladykirk Church was built by James IV. in gratitude for