CHEVIOT 117 



successive fell-ranges along the Border can be distin- 

 guished. Southward also are hills — nothing but hills ; 

 Kelso Cleugh and the Windy Gyle ; the broad contour 

 of Shilmoor, and, nearer at hand, the rival peak of 

 Hedgehope (2348 feet), its green steeps furrowed with 

 peat-cracks like the pencilling^' on a bunting's egg. The 

 Simonside range limits the view in this direction ; but to 

 the east, nearly all the seaboard of Northumberland lies 

 in view. There, one distinguishes the ancient Border 

 fortresses of Bamborough, Dunstanborough, and the 

 Lindisfarne, the wooded heights of Chillingham and the 

 fatal field of Flodden. Further away, the Fames and 

 Coquet Island show dimly through a slight sea-haze ; while 

 right opposite, lies Holy Island, with its white sands set 

 off by a surriit sea : — 



"The tide did now its floodmark gain 

 And girdled in the saints' domain, 

 For with the ebb and flow, its style 

 Varies from Continent to Isle. 

 Dryshod o'er sands twice every day 

 The pilgrim to the shrine finds way. 

 Twice every day the waves efface 

 Of staves and sandalled feet the trace." 



{Marmion.) 



Half-a-mile across the plateau, the actual boundary 

 is marked by Auchhope Cairn, a steepled granite pile that 

 dominates that eerie abyss yclept the Henhole. At this 

 spot, England and Scotland are divided by a gorge 

 that is certainly as wild and bold as any that I have 

 seen in the three kingdoms. The whole mountain-flank 

 is rent in twain from the top to the bottom — the depth 

 of the gorge, by rude eye-measurement, looks like 1500 

 feet. The screes, or "glitters," which fringe the flanks 

 of this abyss are interrupted by jagged outstanding 



