( 45 ) 



CHAPTER III. 



THE TWEED. 



HAT the Rhine is to the German, or the 

 Jordan was to the Jew, the Tweed is to the 

 Scot. The barrier of his nationality, entwined 

 with his history and traditions, flowing through his 

 songs and beautifying his legends, it is the stream 

 which he is proud of above all others, deficient as it 

 may be in many respects when compared with some 

 native rivers — wanting the parent lochs and mighty 

 volume of the Tay, the rich windings and the regal 

 associations of the Forth, the romantic linns and teem- 

 ing commerce of the Clyde. The land through which 

 it flows is dear to him as the scene of his ancient bal- 

 lads ; and it has had its old character revivified and 

 refreshed within the memory of the present generation 

 in a way that has made it twice classic and doubly 

 hallowed. The great lyrical harvest that was garnered 

 long ago on the Borders has been succeeded by an 

 after-crop worthy of the first. From source to mouth the 

 Tweed sings for ever to the listener of the greatest of 

 minstrels and romancers, Walter Scott; from the braes 

 of Yarrow and the shaws of Ettrick still comes the 

 sweet and homely strain of the Shepherd-bard ; Teviot 

 rolls in the remembrance of the too brief border-life of 

 John Leydcn ; while every green glen has, as well as 

 its pleasant water or burnie, its own song and its ee- 



