ABBOTSFORD AND MELROSE ABBEY. 99 



soil, in a bend of the Tweed, still stands the ''Romance 

 in Stone ;" and the renown of its founder draws thou- 

 sands of pilgrims to the place every year. The loca- 

 tion for a home was carefully selected, and the erec- 

 tion of the huil dings and the ornamentation of the 

 estate were conducted at intervals as leisure and in- 

 come permitted. The surrounding at best is attractive 

 only to a moderate degree. The land is not fertile, 

 except in occasional spots near the bank of the river ; 

 and the pastoral inhabitants are plain as they are 

 honest. The hills are not covered with timber, but 

 with heather and brushwood covers for rabbits and 

 pheasants. The Duke of Buccleuch owns large es- 

 tates hereabouts, and maintains a hunter's lodge in 

 the vicinity. Occasionally he entertains members of 

 the Royal family, and takes his visitors on a fox hunt. 

 Then the musical bay of the hounds calls to the fields 

 the entire population of the vicinage. 



When Washington Irving paid Abbotsford a 

 visit, he remarked to his distinguished host that the 

 scenery of " Borderland " had been a disappointment 

 that " the hills were too bare to be beautiful, and 

 too low to be impressive." Scott hummed a moment 

 as if at a loss for a proper reply, and then bravely 

 said : " It may be pertinacity in me, but to my eye 

 these gray hills and all this Border country have 

 beauties peculiar to themselves. I like the very 

 nakedness of the land ; it has something bold, stern, 

 and solitary about it. When I have been for some 

 time in the rich scenery about Edinburgh, which is 

 like ornamental garden land, I begin to wish myself 

 back again among my own honest gray hills ; and if 

 I did not see the heather at least once a year, 1 think I 

 should die" 



