his escape from
drowning while fording the Tweed. Last of all, we reach Berwick, at one
period the chief seaport in Scotland--a "second Alexandria," as was
said, now the veriest shadow of its former self. Christianized towards
the close of the fourth century, according to Bede, as a place rich in
churches, monasteries and hospitals, Berwick held high rank in the
ecclesiastical world. Its geographical position, too, as a frontier town
made it the Strasburg for which contending armies were continually in
conflict. Century after century its history was one red record of strife
and bloodshed. Its walls, like its old Bridge spanning the Tweed, were
built in Elizabeth's reign, and its Royal Border Bridge, opened to
traffic in 1850, was happily characterised by Robert Stephenson, its
builder, as the "last act of the Union."

PLATE 18

THE REMNANT OF
WARK CASTLE

FROM A WATER-COLOUR SKETCH

PAINTED BY

JAMES ORROCK, R.I.

(_See pp. 39 and 92_)

[Illustration]

IV. "PLEASANT TEVIOTDALE"

Ettrick and Yarrow between them comprise most of Selkirkshire. The
Teviot and Jed are the main arteries running through Roxburghshire, or
Teviotdale, as was the ancient designation, colloquially Tividale and
Tibbiedale. On the source-to-mouth principle--the most natural and the
most instructive--the best approach into Teviotdale is by way of
Langholm, locally _the_ Langholm, pleasantly situated on the
Dumfriesshire Esk, at the junction of the Ewes and Wauchope Waters. In
the fine pastoral valley of the Ewes--the Yarrow of Dumfriesshire--we
pass several places of note before striking Teviothead and the main
course of the Teviot. At Wrae, William Knox, author of "The Lonely
Hearth," and writer of the stanzas on "Mortality," so constantly quoted
by Abraham Lincoln, had his home for a time. George Gilfillan, no mean
judge, characterises him as the best sacred poet in Scotland. Further on
is the birth-spot of another well-known singer, Henry Scott Riddell,
whose patriotic "Scotland Yet" has won its way to the ends of the earth,
wherever Scotsmen gather. At Unthank Kirkyard--none more lonely save St.
Mary's on Yarrow, perhaps--we examine the graves of the hospitable and
kindly Elliots of "Dandie Dinmont" immortality. Mosspaul Inn, lately
restored, is close to the boundary between the two counties. From the
Wisp Hill (1950 feet) the view on a clear day from Carlisle in the south
to the distant north, is one to be rem