COLDSTREAM — MONK, BRYDONE, KAMES. 21 



disappeared ; and the only indication of its site is some luxuriant garden ground, 

 where nature and cultivation have united to mystify the ancient sanctuary. 



It was here that General Monk matured his designs for effecting the Restora- 

 tion, and where the gallant regiment — whose meritorious services were lately pub- 

 lished — was raised in the winter of 1659. Here also, in December, 1491, a truce 

 was concluded between the two countries for five years, in which several original 

 and salutary stipulations were introduced ; among others — That the ships, 

 Scdlors, merchants, and other subjects, in passing or repassing by land, sea, or 

 freshwater, whether in the cases of their conversing, sailing, suffering sliipwreek, 

 or sojourning, should in every respect have such treatment and recej)tion as used 

 to be given in former times : but, as an exception to these, that, to do justice to 

 malefactors and truce-breakers, the said offenders should be severely punished in 

 form and manner, as had been anciently established, &c. A clause is also intro- 

 duced, suggesting a remedy for the inconveniency of allowing particular persons 

 to redress their wrongs at their own discretion and by their own power.* 



A short distance from Coldstream, and above the ruins of the old church of 

 Lennel, is the mansion-house of the same name — distinguished as having been 

 the residence of the celebrated Patrick Brydone, whose letters from Sicily and 

 Malta have so long enjoyed an established reputation in modern literature. Hirsel, 

 the princely seat of the earl of Home, is finely planted at the foot of the neigh- 

 bouring Law, and presents in its style and artificial embellishments the beau ideal 

 of a patrician residence. In passing through Eccles, so called from the number of 

 its ancient chapels or other religious edifices, there is much to interest and detain 

 the traveller, though less noticed than others in the neighbourhood. It is the 

 birth-place of Lord Kames, whose long established reputation, so familiar to every 

 reader, precludes any necessity of biographical notice. Here, in the enjoyment 

 of his literary solitude, most of his philosophical works were composed; and here 

 the great improvements which, as already stated, he afterwards introduced into 

 the agriculture of the county, underwent the first test of experiment. Here also, 

 in 1759, while uniting literary fame with the studies and occupations of a practical 

 farmer, on his estate of Kames, he had the pleasure of receiving Dr. Franklin 

 and his son on their visit to Scotland — an event which was attended with much 

 mutual gratification. The village of Birgham, where, according to tradition, a 

 bridge over the Tweed formerly united the two kingdoms, is noticed in Border 

 history as ha\dng been a point where several political questions were decided. In 

 1188, when the contemporary monarchs of England and France had resolved on 



• Border History. James IV. a. d. 1491, p. iei. 

 G 



