1904-1905-] Yarrow : Its Literature and Romance. 161 



that it took the place of one belonging to a much earlier 

 period. It is a noble and massive pile, and is in excellent 

 preservation. It is said that when the late Duke of Buccleuch 

 was a minor his trustees took down part of this historic keep 

 in order to build a farm-house in the immediate vicinity. It 

 was a piece of unpardonable vandalism. But no sooner had 

 his Grace come of age than he tore down the farm-house and 

 had every stone belonging to the castle replaced with pious 

 care. All honour to his memory ! Could these walls speak, 

 they would relate many a strange and stirring tale of Border 

 feud and foray. Here Sir Walter Scott laid the scene of 

 " The Lay of the Last Minstrel." The Harper 



" pass'd where Newark's stately tower 

 Looks out fx'om Yarrow's birchen bower : 

 The Minstrel gazed with wishful eye — 

 No humbler resting-place was nigh ; 

 With hesitating step at last, 

 The embattled portal arch he pass'd, 

 Whose ponderous grate and massy bar 

 Had oft rolled back the tide of war, 

 But never closed the iron door 

 Against the desolate and poor." 



" J. B. Selkirk," a name which will long live in Border 

 literature, has also laid the scene of one of his best poems at 

 Newark. In his " Song of Yarrow " he sings — 



" September, and the sun was low, 



The tender greens were flecked with yellow, 

 And autumn's ardent after-glow 



Made Yarrow's uplands rich and mellow. 



Between me and the sunken sun, 



Where gloaming gathered in the meadows, 



Contented cattle, red and dun, 



Were slowly browsing in the shadows. 



And out beyond them Newark reared 



Its quiet tower against the sky, 

 As if its walls had never heard 



Of wassail-rout or battle-cry. 



O'er moss-grown roofs that once had rung 



To reiver's riot, Border brawl. 

 The slumberous shadows mutely hung, 



And silence deepened over all." 



