HILLS AND DENES. 



13 



and the range thus girds in and defines the plain beneath them, 

 called from its comparative levelness the How-of-the-Merse. The 

 hilly border is "intersected by many narrow vales in various 

 directions, chiefly tending towards the south, in which most of 

 the streamlets flow ; though the rivers of the vale-land princi- 

 pally run from west towards the east. From the main range of 

 hills, various spurs jut out towards the south ; and there are 

 sevei-al detached or isolated hills in different places of the vale 

 of the Merse. And even that vale is much diversified by nume- 

 rous swells and knolls, and winding deep dells, in which last the 

 streamlets of the lower country flow in search of the larger waters 

 and rivers. The northern sides of the Lammermoor Hills are of 

 considerable steepness, but belong to East Lothian; while the 

 southern slopes are generally moderate, and blend gradually 

 into the lower vale. In many places the tops of the hills form 

 extensive elevated table-lands, which slope almost insensibly 

 towards the south into the lower vales. The higher land is 

 usually miserably bare infertile moor ; while the slopes, called 

 the moor edges, are mostly useful land, and sometimes of excel- 

 lent quality *.^^ 



The principal hills, with their elevations, are named in the 

 following table constructed from various authorities : — 



Feet, 



Criblaw 1650 



Spartleton-hill 1615 



Heitside-hill 1552 



Clint-hill 1549 



Lammerlaw 1500 



Sayerslaw 1500 



Tippet-knowes 1325 



Mainslaughter-hill . . . . 1260 



Dirrington-law 1145 



Boonhill 1090 



Cockburn-law 1049 



Feet. 



Soutra-hill 1000 



Hume Castle 898 



Buncle-edge 700 



Stitchel 



Lamberton 



Wardlaw, Coldingham 



Dunse-law 



Halidon 



Grant's-house .... 

 Blaiky's-point, Eyemouth 

 Eccles Manse .... 



680 

 660 

 640 

 630 

 535 

 366 

 350 

 315 



The denes t and ravines are, as we have mentioned, very 

 numerous, and several of them possess so much beauty and 

 seclusion that they become charming haunts for a naturalist 

 on a summer's day. Foremost in rank is Dunglass-dene, the 



* Edin. Encyclopaedia, iii. p. 487. Mr. Kerr conjectures that these 

 hills have got their name " from the lambs of the low country having been 

 anciently sent to that moor, when taken from their mothers." View, p. 15. 

 Certainly Mr. Kerr's forte was not etymology. 



t In our Dictionaries the word is usually spelled Den, but Mr. Carr, 

 who aptly defines it as a " sylvan ravine," makes it Dene. Trans. Tyne- 

 side Nat. Club, ii. p. 101. In books relating to Berwickshire, the authors 

 always spell the word Dean, and so it is invariably pronounced. I have 

 sometimes used one and sometimes the other orthography. 



