INTRODUCTION. xv 



Hills are seen in all their sterile and heath-clad blackness, 

 their rounded forms well defined, and placed, as it were, as 

 a protection to the wide and cultivated plains which they 

 enclose. Extending for many miles, the Merse appears 

 reclining in calm repose, its surface decked with various 

 objects of rural interest, and interspersed with trees, hedge- 

 rows, woods, rich pastures, and spacious and fertile corn- 

 fields. To the south-west is seen Home Castle, frowning 

 from its elevated site on the plain beneath, and recalling 

 the remembrance of feudal times. At a further distance, 

 and nearly in the same direction, appear the Eildon Hills, 

 towering to the clouds, while far to the south-east the huge 

 masses of the Cheviot Mountains, rising in dim and dusky 

 grandeur, arrest the eye of the spectator, and furnish a fine 

 and imposing termination to the scene." ^ 



Although the Merse is now so beautifully wooded and 

 well cultivated, it was for many centuries previous to 

 1730 almost wholly destitute of trees, and little or no 

 progress had been made in the enclosing or improvement 

 of the ground. Here it may not be considered out of 

 place to take a rapid glance at some of the more important 

 changes which have modified its surface within the his- 

 torical period. 



When the Eomans, in their conquest of Britain, 

 reached this district, it is believed that they found the 

 greater part of it covered with extensive forests and 

 marshes, in which roamed the Wild Ox,^ the Red Deer,^ 



1 Neio statistical Account of Scotland, 1845, vol. ii. (Berwickshire), p. 362. 



2 See "Notes on the Ancient Cattle of Scotland," by Dr. J. A. Smith, in 

 Proc. Soc. Antiq. of Scot., 1873, vol. ix. part ii. p. 641. 



3 In olden times the Red Deer abounded in the LammermiTirs, where it has 

 given its name to North and South Hartlaw, also to the farms of Hartside and 

 Hindsidehill. Its remains have been found at Whitrig Bog in the parish of 

 Mertoun ; Whiteburn in the parish of Westruther ; and Kimmerghame in the 

 parish of Edrom. For some interesting notes by Mr . Hardy on the Red Deer in 

 Berwickshire, see Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. iv. pp. 214-217 ; also Ridpath's 

 Border History, p. 541. 



