ABBEY ST. BATHAN'S DUNSE-LAW. 179 



below. The angling in this portion of the water is 

 admirable, and in the deep eddying pools there are 

 trout of the largest dimensions. At last, winding round 

 the base of Cockburn-Law, the Whitadder leaves the 

 Lammermoors for the rich low-lying Merse. It is here 

 most readily got at from Dunse, which is two miles 

 distant from the Whitadder. On Dunse-Law, under 

 which this douce little town is built, General Lesly, 

 afterwards Earl of Leven, twice encamped with a 

 large army of Covenanters, the first time dictating 

 terms to King Charles I., who lay with his forces at 

 Berwick, the second time making his way by Newcastle 

 into Yorkshire, where he concluded a favourable treaty. 

 The remains of the godly camp on Dunse-Law are still 

 pointed out.* Dunse also claims to be the birthplace 

 of two characters who are each distinguished in dif- 

 ferent walks of theological controversy John Duns 



* " Lesly's March," a ditty that records these triumphant 

 performances of the Scotch Presbyterians under their able 

 Generals the two Leslies, has, considering its origin, remark- 

 ably little of the savour of grace in it. Indeed it begins 



" March ! March ! 

 Why the devil do you na inarch ? " 



and while it professes the object of the marching to be " true 

 gospel to maintain," it has the following naive declaration of 

 national conceit : 



" When to the Kirk we come, 



We '11 purge it ilka room, 

 Frae popish relics and a' sic innovation, 

 That a' the warld may see, 

 There's nane in the right but we, 

 Of the auld Scottish nation ." 



Yet Professor Blackie thinks it his mission to teach his country- 

 men to estimate themselves a little more highly than they do ! 



