74 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



Sir Simon Lockhart, and buried at Melrose. The dead 

 Douglas who won the field of Otterburne was also 

 brought here to be interred — a fact which we rather 

 regret, seeing that while we give implicit credence to 

 the Scottish ballad's account of that battle, as against 

 the English one, we can hardly reconcile this with the 

 distinct statement that " Earl Douglas was buried at 

 the braken bush," where he had given his heroic dy- 

 ing instructions to his " ain dear sister's son, Sir Hugh 

 Montgomerie." " Heir lyis the race of ye Hous of 

 Zair" is one of the striking inscriptions upon the walls 

 of the abbey ; and there are many other legends 

 graven about the old walls, which, while they teach the 

 Melrose moralists to die, recall also the pomp and pre- 

 tensions of Scottish families, many of which are now 

 extinct. The Abbey of Melrose had rich and far- 

 spreading possessions in its palmy days, which were 

 bit by bit gripped by greedy barons, and were finally 

 confiscated at the Keformation. It had piscarial rights 

 in the Tweed adjoining, conferred by the charter of 

 David I. 



A little rivulet with (as is sometimes the case with 

 Scotch burns) several names, flows into the Tweed 

 through the first haugh above Melrose. It comes from 

 Cauldshiels Loch, on the Abbotsford estate, where 

 Scott and his family used to bob for perch ; but it 

 is chiefiy remarkable as associated with Thomas the 

 Rhymer, — Huntly bank, where he first saw the Fairy 

 Queen, overlooking it. It is called, we believe, the 

 Bogle-burn, and the Ehymer's-burn. 



As we have said, the salmon-fishings in the Tweed, 

 above and at Melrose, belong to Lord Somerville, and 



