CHAPTER IX 



CHEVIOT 



Midsummer day of 1887, the first jubilee of our beloved 



Queen Victoria and one of the most delicious that our 



temperate zone is capable of producing", the author spent 



in a solitary ramble over Cheviot. 



Approached from the east, the route towards Cheviot 



runs for several miles up the Caldg'ate valley — a glen 



which is certainly by far the prettiest on the volcanic 



formation, and much more varied and striking" than that 



of the College-burn, the alternative route by which 



Cheviot is approached from the north. The walk up 



Caldgate's glen reveals several miles of lovely moorland 



scenery, with great naked rocks standing - out abrupt as 



ruined castles from the steep and rugged inclines. The 



track, passing" through heather, fern, and shaggy foliage, 



follows the course of the burn, a splashing torrent, full of 



troutlets, and fringed with natural wood — oak and birch, 



alder, saugh, and rowan. The bloom of the hawthorn at 



midsummer is perfect — each bush bearing" a canopy of 



spotless white ; the mossy banks and braes glow with the 



purple of wild thyme and bell-heather, and all are alive 



with little chestnut-winged butterflies {Ccenonympha fiam- 



fihilus) ; while the air is resonant with the warble of 



willow-wren and whinchat, the trill of the sandpiper, and 

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