94 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



ing of a novus homo with abundance of wealth who had settled 

 in the neighbourhood, " he hasna muckle bluid." From the 

 curious conical hill on which the ruins of Wark Castle are care- 

 lessly flung, to whiten like Time's bones in the distant sun- 

 light, Kelso is soon reached a place of many memories. But 

 it should, at all events, be borne in mind, that at Wark took 

 place the memorable circumstance which led to the institution 

 in 1349 of the Order of the Garter. 



Scott spent some time with his aunt at Kelso, after leaving 

 school at Edinburgh, and it was in her garden, under a wide- 

 spreading plane-tree, that he first read Percy's Reliques. There, 

 too, he made the acquaintance of the Ballantynes, who were 

 to colour his future life so deeply. It rains here, but we will 

 push on with poetic snatches to console us, 



" Sic a day o' wind and rain, 

 Oh, wae's me for Prince Charlie ! " 



And, after all, the Douglas maxim ought to be the motto of every 

 pedestrian "Better to hear the lark sing than the mouse 

 cheep." A rift in the clouds on our leaving pours a flood of 

 soft light over the old Abbey's mouldering walls by the Tweed, 

 and we look back upon the place with some regret 011 bidding 

 it farewell with some such feelings as were those of the Border 

 widow on burying her slain husband, 



" But think na ye my heart was sair, 

 When I laid the moul' on his yellow hair ? 

 Oh, think na ye my heart was wae 

 When I turned about awa' to gae ? " 



She could easily, however, procure a new one. if another ballad 

 may be believed, 



" Hoot, hoot, the auld man's slain outright ! 

 Lay him now wi' his face down : he's a sorrowful sight, 

 Janet, thou donot 1 

 111 lay my best bonnet, 

 Thou gets a new gude man afore it be night." 



