25 
character full of energy—a quality, it is true, which too often 
shows itself in forms not to be commended. Even as far back as 
200 years ago, the people of these parts had a sinister reputation 
all over the adjoining districts for their bullying and fighting 
propensities, frequent challenges being sent not only from hill to 
hill, but from these hills to those of neighbouring counties. As 
a proof of the desperate character of these encounters, we are 
told that even the victor generally returned from them with an 
eye gouged out, or minus an ear, a nose, &c., bitten off by his 
antagonist in the brutal combat—details sufficiently revolting, 
no doubt, but which I give here in illustration of the fierce 
spirit and fiery energy at that time dwelling in our border- 
highlanders, in whose descendants there yet burns, in a modified 
degree, and happily exhibiting himself in forms less savage, the 
same fiery force, accompanied by a physique the most robust. 
Their mental idiosyncrasy, on the other hand, is full of indivi- 
duality, and a more incisive mother-wit, or a slyer. or more 
*‘pawkie’’ humour I have never met with in a population so 
largely Saxon. 
So that in these as in other matters yet to be dwelt on, there 
is really immense booty awaiting the zealous hunter and explorer 
into these regions—regions which, though formerly remote and 
sequestered to a degree, are now accessible enough, and in fact, 
through railway facilities, may be said to lie almost at our doors, 
albeit to reach nooks and corners more specially referred to in 
this paper, considerable mountain climbing will have to be done 
betimes and many rugged paths trodden. 
With regard to the ethnological puzzle, this at least may be 
affirmed without dogmatism, viz., that the Celtic element is here 
a somewhat more considerable one than writers on the subject 
usually allow. For the rest inhabiting, as I have said, for so 
long a period these high hills and sequestered mountain-valleys 
(whose wild and remote character is expressed by their very 
names, such as ‘‘ Wyndy Harbour,” ‘ Back o’ Behund,” &c.,) 
much exposed to the weather, and living frugally, the people of 
this region are a hardy and long-lived race, inasmuch that at a 
recent gathering of some 400 of them, inhabiting a portion of 
the district certainly comprised within no large area, the average 
age was found to be between 70 and 80 years! Healthy and 
hardy themselves, the admiration of the hill folk is mainly 
excited by the same qualities in others, mere mental graces with 
them counting for little. Indeed the possession of such would be 
likely to prove rather a drawback than otherwise with anyone 
seeking to ingratiate himself with these sturdy people, who, more 
than all perhaps, distrust the man who has got what is called, 
Th’ gift o’ th’ gab.’ “That'll gether e’now” (e’en now). 
(‘* That man will send the collecting box round by and by,’’) was 
