( ^^7 ) 



CHAPTER IV. 



ETTRICK AND YARROW. 



*' Ettricke Foreste is a feir foreste, 

 In it grows manie a semelie trie; 

 'nM>re''s hart and hjiid, and due and ra«. 

 And of a' wilde bestis grete plentie." 



The Sang of the Outlaw Murray. 



fcTTRICK FOREST is still fair— but not 

 with seemly trees. Scanty and scrubby are 

 now the representatives, in cleugli and on 

 hill-side, of the ash, the birch, the alder, and the 

 rowan-tree, that by their abundance gave the district 

 its name and its old character — affording shelter in the 

 remotest times, to the bear, the bison, the wolf, and 

 the stag, — to the native Britons, when the Roman 

 conqueror had pitched his camp on the Eildons, and 

 lorded over all he surveyed from that lofty post — in 

 the later or historical and ballad-times to the outlaw 

 and the reiver, and the great families of Douglas and 

 Scott. It is still the "the Forest," however; and, 

 although with the trees have passed away the " hart 

 and hynd, and dae and rae," there remain the lochs, 

 rivers, and rivulets, and their original inhabitants. 

 The salmon hardly now penetrates to the Ettrick 

 and Yarrow, save in breeding-time, but at that pe- 

 riod every stream is ploughed up by spawners, and a 

 greater number of them escape the leister than might 



G 



