PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE — THE MERSE. 17 



which a few years have introduced — the heaths that have disappeared — the 

 harvest-fields that succeed — the plantations that have sprung up — the old things 

 that have every where passed away, and the new that fill their place — they 

 tacitly feel the force of the Swiss metaphor which says — " I would rather look 

 on the snows of my native St. Gothard, than the fairest garden on the Seine !" 



" Pear sliall tliat river's margin be to him, 

 Where sportive first he bathed his boyish limb ; 

 But more magnetic yet to memory, 

 Shall be the sacred spot, still blooming nigh — 

 The bower of love, where first his bosom burned. 

 And smiling passion saw its smile returned." Campbell. 



The Merse. — Observing the same natural divisions as already laid down, and 

 describing each object as it successively presents itself in our progress westward, 

 we shall diverge, as occasion requires, into the lateral valleys of the 5? weed, 

 and select such specimens of local scenery, and such particulars of history 

 and statistics, as possess prominent interest, and seem most in unison with our 

 subject as a work of illustration. In a field so fertile and diversified, and 

 offering so many rival attractions to the poet, the painter, the historian, and 

 antiquary — the very abundance of materials renders selection difficult; we 

 trust, nevertheless, that, so far as our circumscribed limits permit, the tour will 

 embrace every predominant feature as it now appears, and include an impartial 

 summary of such reminiscences, liints, and reflections, as the prolific track 

 on which we have entered, may suggest. 



The town of Berwick-gn-Tweed, although no longer connected with the 

 county to which it gives name, was a station of great strength and importance 

 in early times, and is still a place of general — and in many respects pecu- 

 liar — interest. In a political sense it was the chief bulwark on that great 

 line of demarcation — the Border frontier, and, like the continental pass on 

 the Rhone, long 



" Held the Itey that could unlock a kingdom." 



The first impression which it makes upon the traveller from the south, is the 

 striking resemblance which it bears to the smaller fortified tovros of the Nether- 

 lands ; and although dismantled, and in several respects modernized and em- 

 bellished, still its original character of sullen strength and defence appears 

 through every disguise — like the mail of an ancient warrior glittering through the 

 flimsy materials of a modern uniform. 



