SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



clothe the slopes, and the silvan glories of the 

 river side are such as Scott dreamt of, planned, but 

 lived not to realise. For he was the pioneer of 

 replanting ; there, between Sunderland Hall and 

 Galashiels, are the woods he reared with so much 

 zeal and forethought; it is to him that the traveller 

 owes, not only the intellectual charm of the Border 

 land, but much of its scenic beauty also. 



Waiting at the pretty little waterside station o] 

 Lindean for the train from Selkirk, one cannot bu1 

 recall events which made that place the last scene 

 in a gallant life. William, son of Sir James DougL 

 of Lothian, is known in history as the Knight oi 

 Liddesdale; but the prowess he displayed, not only 

 against the English in the war of independence, but 

 also on French battlefields, gained him also the 

 prouder title of the Flower of Chivalry. He wo] 

 back from the English the Douglas estates on th< 

 Border, but in 1346 he was taken prisoner at th< 

 battle of Durham, along with King David II., who* 

 hot-headed folly in provoking that conflict went nig] 

 to sacrificing for good and all the hard-won liberty 

 of his country. For six years the Flower of Chivali 

 drooped in a dungeon of the Tower of London. 

 Better had he drooped to death; for, despairing oi 

 freedom, he turned traitor, and bargained wit! 

 King Edward for release, receiving broad lands ii 

 Annandale, which he was to hold as an open doo] 

 for the passage of English armies. 



Meanwhile another William Douglas had returned 



144 



