1 62 Yarrow: Its Literature and Romance. [Sess. 



On the other side of the river, right opposite Newark, may 

 be seen the ruined homestead where Mungo Park, the great 

 African traveller, was born. He achieved world-wide fame by 

 his gallant efforts to explore the Niger. He was born in 

 1771, and died in 1805. His wife, who survived him many 

 years, could never persuade herself that he had perished, and 

 looked for his return till her dying day. Park studied 

 medicine, and practised his profession in Peebles, where he 

 won the esteem and affection of the community in a singular 

 degree. It is recorded that when he returned from his first 

 visit to Africa, Sir Walter Scott, who was then living at 

 Ashiestiel, on the Tweed, came over to see him, and found 

 him standing on the banks of the Yarrow dropping stones 

 into a pool. Sir Walter playfully remarked, " This is a fine 

 occupation for a great African traveller." To which Park 

 replied that it was in this way he discovered the depths 

 of the streams in Africa, as owing to their muddy condition 

 one could never see to the bottom of them. Park visited 

 Scott before he set out on his last expedition to the dark 

 continent, and spent a night at Ashiestiel. Next morning his 

 host accompanied him homewards over the wild chain of hills 

 between the Tweed and the Yarrow. Park talked much of 

 his new scheme, and mentioned his determination to tell his 

 family that he had business for a day or two in Edinburgh, 

 and send them his blessing from thence, without returning to 

 take leave. The autumnal mist floating down the valley of 

 the Yarrow presented to Scott's imagination a striking emblem 

 of the troubled and uncertain prospect which his undertaking 

 had afforded. Peaching the spot where they had agreed to 

 separate, Park's horse stumbled and nearly fell. " I am 

 afraid, Mungo," said the Sheriff, " that is a bad omen ; " to 

 which he answered, " Freits follow those who look for them." 

 In a few moments these two friends had parted for the last 

 time on earth. 



About half-a-mile beyond Park's birthplace we come to the 

 mansion-house of Broadmeadows, standing on a plateau above 

 the river, and commanding a magnificent view of Newark and 

 of the country beyond. Before Scott built Abbotsford he had 

 a great ambition to become the laird of Broadmeadows, but he 

 failed to secure the much-coveted prize. It was unfortunate. 



