ABBEY ST. batman's — DUNSE-LAW. 173 



the base of Cockbnrn-Law, the Whitadder leaves the 

 Lammermoors for the rich low-lying Merse. It is here 

 most readily got at from Dunse, which is two miles 

 distant from the Whitadder. (On Dunse-Law, under 

 which this douce little town is built, General Lesly, 

 afterwards Earl of Leven, twice encamped with a 

 large army of Covenanters, — the first time dictating 

 terms to King Charles I., who lay with his forces at 

 Berwick, the second time making his way by New- 

 castle into Yorkshire, where he concluded a favourable 

 treaty. The remains of the godly camp on Dunse-law 

 are still pointed out.*) Dunse has two excellent inns ; 

 and the Cross-Keys, kept by Geordie Hamilton's widow 

 although a second-rate one, might do for many an 

 angler. 



From Preston Bridge, the nearest point to Dunse, 

 down to Chirnside, the Whitadder is a good deal fished, 

 chiefly by local anglers ; but that it has abundance of 

 trout will be demonstrated to any one who happens to 



* " Lesly's March," a ditty that records these triumphant 

 performances of the Scotch Presbyterians, under their able 

 Generals, the two Leslies, has, considering its origin, remark- 

 ably little of the savour of grace in it. Indeed it begins, 

 " March ! March ! 

 WJvj the devil do you na march ? " 

 and while it professes the object of the marching to be " true 

 gospel to maintain," it has the following naive declaration of 

 national conceit : — 



" "When to the Kirk we come, 

 "We'll purge it ilka room, 

 Frae popish relics and a' sic innovation. 

 That a' the xvarld moy see, 

 There 's nane in the right but tve 

 Ofthecmld Scottish ncitioyi." 



Yet Professor Blackie thinks it his mission to teach his conntrj-- 

 men to estimate themselves a little more highly than they do ! 



