NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 33 



It has been justly observed that '* Scott directed all men's eyes to the 

 Borders ;" but, wizard as he was, he could not transport their bodies 

 thither scot free, or I should have been booked by that coach long ago. 

 Never, then, having before visited this interesting portion of his Majesty's 

 dominions, yet having lived on terms of great intimacy with a friend, 

 now gathered to his fathers, who possessed a fishery under its walls 

 which netted him six hundred pounds a year, and an estate hard by of 

 nearly as many thousands (but who, hke myself, had never seen either), 

 I had heard so much of Berwick-upon-Tweed from himself, and of Bar- 

 rick from his Scotch baihflf, that I was wofully disappointed when I 

 looked out of my window on the morrow, at the mean and sombre appear- 

 ance of this neither Scotch nor English town. Nevertheless, its being 

 one of the few British towns surrounded by walls, and I believe the only- 

 one by those in a regular state of fortification — in addition to its ''old- 

 soldier-like accuracy of deportment," and its association with deeds of 

 days long since gone by, renders it an object of no common interest. 

 The walls I, of course, explored— and a delightful walk they afi"ord ; as 

 likewise the bridge over the Tweed, which is one of the finest I have 

 ever seen, consisting of upwards of a dozen arches, and those of great 

 span. I then returned to my inn with a good appetite for my breakfast; 

 and, although I as yet only considered myself on the Border, when I 

 saw it on the table I thought of a question I had seen put in some 

 book or other — " What gluttony can compete with a breakfast in 

 Scotland ?" 



" Any coach to Dunse, to-day?" said I to the waiter, as he was in the 



act of making my tea. *' Nay, nay," he replied, with a significant 



shake of the head ; '' there's na coach out of Barrick to-day ; 'tis the 



Sabbath .'" '' All the better for the cattle and the coachman," said I to 



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