OCTOBEE 199 



with the Lay of the Last Minstrel. Look round from 

 where I am standing now, on Bemersyde hill, how 

 familiarity has deepened tender reverence for such 

 names as 



' Ercildoune and Cowdenknowes 



Where Homes had ance commanding, 

 And Drygrange with its milk-white ew es 



'Twixt Tweed and Leader standing. 

 The bird that flies through Kedpath trees 



And Gladswood banks each morrow 

 May chant and sing sweet Leader Haugh, 



And bonny howms o' Yarrow.' 



In the last journey made by Walter Scott beside his 

 beloved river, a deeply sorrowing procession passed 

 close by the ancient tower of Bemersyde, following his 

 remains to their resting-place in Dryburgh Abbey. In 

 one respect this fortalice is distinguished among many 

 scores of others built to protect the Scottish Marches 

 namely, that from the time when earliest mention of 

 it occurs, it has remained in the possession of a single 

 family. Seven centuries may be reckoned by an ice- 

 age theorist but as a watch in a geological night ; yet 

 are there passing few lands held in Scotland at the 

 present day by the descendants of those who did fealty 

 for them to Malcolm Canmore. The endurance of the 

 Haigs of Bemersyde in their primitive home is the 

 more remarkable because they have never been a 

 powerful family, nor have they been careful to extend 

 the originally modest acreage of their territory by 

 judicious marriages. But it is theirs to boast of the 

 prophetic charter bestowed by Thomas the Rhymer 



