io 4 LANDSCAPE AND LITERATURE 



according to the geological structure of the ground. 

 Where the rocks have been but little disturbed, the 

 sides of the valleys display a succession of parallel bars 

 of stone with intervening grassy slopes, such as may 

 be seen among the moors of the East Riding, or in 

 the dales of the Pennine Chain. Where, on the other 

 hand, the rocks have been much compressed and 

 pushed over each other by powerful movements of 

 the terrestrial crust, their erosion has given rise to no 

 regular topography, but they decay into rounded forms 

 covered with heath and herbage, or breaking here and 

 there into rocky scarps, as in Wales and southern 

 Scotland. 



Of the British uplands, the only district that claims 

 notice here in connection with our literature is that of 

 the wide Border country of England and Scotland. It 

 stretches through the moorlands of Northumberland 

 and Cumberland into the range of the Cheviots on the 

 one hand, and on the other into the great tract of high 

 ground, which extends through the Lammermuir and 

 other groups of fells from the North Sea to the Solway 

 Firth. For many centuries this region has been pre- 

 eminently pastoral. The natural forest, which in old 

 times clothed much of its surface, has almost wholly 

 disappeared before modern agriculture, and the plough 

 has in successive generations crept higher up the slopes 

 from the meadows of the dales. But there can be little 

 doubt that though roads and railways have done much 

 to open up these solitudes, the natural features remain 

 essentially unchanged. 



It was among these uplands that the Border ballads 

 had their birth. We may therefore pause for a few 



