CLIMATE. — THE LEADER. — GEOLOGY. 33 



of his friends, whose gran daughter, the heiress of Thirlestane, married Sir 

 Richard Mautaland, founder of the noble family, to which the greater portion 

 of the parish now belongs. On this estate, several hundred acres of new 

 plantations, all tastefully laid out, have been recently finished, and appear 

 to thrive luxuriously. At Chapel, also, in the southern part of the parish, 

 nearly a hundred acres are occupied with wood — principally of oak, beech, 

 ash, and fir, the two former of which are of vigorous growth, and all extremely 

 conducive to shelter, as well as enriching to the scenery. The climate, although 

 variable, has of late years greatly improved in salubrity : ague, once so preva- 

 lent, has entirely disappeared; while the proportion of consumptive cases 

 has considerably diminished. During the spring, cold east winds generally 

 prevail, but throughout the rest of the year, they are succeeded by those 

 from the south and south-west. It has been observed, that the clouds,^ in a 

 drj' summer, after collecting above the higher districts of the Tweed and 

 Ettrick, are attracted by the Lammermoor liills on the north, and the Cheviot 

 on the south, and, diffused on one or other of these, leave the intermediate 

 and lower region in a parched state. This is a source of much disappointment 

 to the agriculturist ; but without this beautiful process in nature for replenishing 

 her exhausted fountains, the streams that sparkle from those green acclivities 

 would soon disappear, and famine succeed fertility; in this manner, great and 

 lasting benefits are secured at slight privation. The Leader, which has its 

 rise in Lammermoor, winds for nine or ten miles to the south-east through 

 this parish, the largest in the county, and falls into the Tweed at Drygrange. 

 Its course in several points is rapid, and much frequented by the lovers of 

 fly-fishing. Isaak Walton himself would have been delighted with its finny pools 

 and fords, while Sir Humphrey Davy might here have united fishmg and 

 pliilosophy, and enriched his " Salmonia," by a sojourn on the Leader. 



In this part of the county there is little on the subject of geology worth 

 remark. On the south-west of the river, an abundant supply of whinstone 

 serves the double purpose of building the houses, and macadamizing the roads.* 

 The arable land is hght and dry, and well suited for turnip crop : a considerable 

 portion is clayey, and others of a rich loam, with a bottom of sand or gravel. 

 The population of the town and parish of Lauder has increased in ten years ; 

 namely, in the interval between 1831 and 1834— from eighteen hundred and 



• In the neiglibouring lulls, the rocks are of the trap formation, with the strata dipping uniformly to the 

 south. Beds of fine red sandstone, fit for building, are found in the channel of the Leader, and strata of 

 fine gravel and sand, at considerable elevations, on the slope of the hills; while a deep layer of peat is 

 found wherever the hills present a flat surface. 



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