6 THE EASTERN BORDERS. 



cannot be used in domestic economy, and the soft water of lakes 

 and rivers that cleanses unaided; and we have besides many 

 kinds of intermediate qualities, which chemistry does not descend 

 to analyse*. Yet each variety exerts, probably, a peculiar 

 influence over the vegetation which it nourishes, and, indirectly, 

 over the distribution of the associated animals; — an influence 

 which has been only imperfectly noted. 



There are many mineral springs scattered over the district. 

 At Spittal there is a chalybeate of sufficient tonic virtue, but 

 defective in every accessory ornament to render that virtue use- 

 ful f. There is an "exceeding cold^^ spring at Cornhill which 

 was once resorted to by many invalids J ; but a more numerous 

 company waited upon the Dunse Spaw, of which we have an 

 account, in 1751, from Dr. francis Home, a physician of de- 

 served eminence. " The well is situated in a valley, which lyes 

 a short mile on the south-side of Dunse §." It is an ordinary 

 chalybeate water in which " the iron seems to be held in solution 

 by carbonic acid; and, if any confidence can be placed in Dr. 

 Homers trials, its strength is nearly the same as that of Tun- 

 bridge Wells.^' Very different has been their history. Tunbridge 

 Wells maintain their character, while the Spaw at Dunse has 

 lost its short-lived reputation, and to many, even in the neigh- 

 bourhood, its exact site is unknown. The spring on Harelaw 

 Moor, in the parish of Westruther, " which is perpetually boiling, 

 and has never been known to freeze during the greatest intensity 

 of winter," is of very similar quality to the Dunse Spaw, and 

 repeats the story of popular favour and subsequent neglect ||. 

 In the parish of Edrom near Allanton there is a mineral spring 

 called the "Vertur" or Virtue-well^; and our untra veiled an- 

 cestors had doubtless another well 



" From which fast trickled forth a silver flood, 

 Full of great virtues, and for med'cine good," 



near the onstead of Mungos' Wells, for a simple and credulous 

 age would not wantonly dedicate to the patron saint of healing 

 waters a spring without at least a reputed character of efficacy. 

 These wells scarcely differ in composition from the chalybeate 

 on the Leet in the parish of Eccles, which was furnished with a 



* "The water of the Blackadder (though its colour is black) is exceedingly 

 pure. The engineers appointed to equalize the weights and measures of 

 the county found it nearly correspond to the weight of distilled water." — 

 Stat. Ace. Berwicks. p. 41. 



t Fuller's Hist, of Berwick, p. 476. 



X Home on the Dunse Spaw, p. 173. 



§ Dr. Home's work is entitled, " An Essay on the Contents and Vii-tues 

 of Dunse-Spaw." Edin. 1751, 8vo. 



II Stat. Ace. Berwicks. p. 65. ^ Ibid. p. 26/. 



