London to John O Groat's. 329 



night in a desert. Sheep, of the Cheviot breed mostly, 

 are nearly the sole inhabitants and industrials of this 

 mountainous waste. They climb to the highest peaks 

 and bring down the white wealth of their wool to man. 

 It was pleasant to see them like walking mites, flecking 

 the dark brows of the mountains. They made a 

 picture ; they made a tableau muant of the same 

 illustration as Landseer's lamb looking into the grass- 

 covered cannon's mouth. 



This is the Border-land! Here the fiercest anta- 

 gonisms of hostile nationalities met in deadly conflict. 

 Fire and blood, rapine and wrath blackened and 

 reddened and ravaged for centuries across this bleak 

 territory. Robber-chieftains and knighted free-booters 

 carried on their guerilla raids backward and forward, 

 under the counterfeited banner of patriotism. Scotch 

 and English armies led by kings marched and counter- 

 marched over this sombre boundary. Never before was 

 there one apparently more insoluble as a barrier 

 between two peoples. Never before in Christendom 

 was there one that required a longer space of time to 

 melt. Never before did the fusing of two nationalities 

 encounter more fierce and prolonged opposition. Did 

 ever patriotism pour out a swifter and deeper tide of 

 chivalrous sentiment against merging one in another ? 

 against uniting two thrones and two peoples in one ? 



