THE TWEED AT DRYBURGH. 275 



edifices which, three or four centuries ago, formed the 

 strongholds of Christianity on Tweedside. It wants 

 the ornateness and beauty, both of design and work- 

 manship, which characterise the Gothic structure at 

 Melrose ; it does not pretend to cope in altitude and 

 stern simplicity with its Norman sister at Kelso, 

 nor yet does it affect a comparison with the mas- 

 sive and still tenable walls and coping which 

 appertain to its Jeddart colleague ; but being 

 more impressively a ruin than any of them, it 

 has that which none of the others have, or are ever 

 likely to have surroundings which befit its char- 

 acter, elevating as well as adorning it. Yews and 

 ivies are here in profusion, and venerable orchard 

 trees, the products of which it is allowable to imagine 

 were partaken of by monks and devotees, not to say 

 reivers and Southron invaders, in the olden days. 

 And there are oaks of course (for the site of the 

 Abbey is said to have been that of a Druidical 

 shrine or city the name itself supports this tra- 

 dition), and other growths showing foliage of varied 

 hues, in abundance. But the grand attraction that 

 which no doubt moved most the soul of Sir Walter 

 Scott when still in the body, to desire as a resting- 

 place this God's-acre was the elbow of the river 

 which clasps it. Climb with me, tired angler, to the 

 Braeheads, as they are called, which form the rear 

 ground of Lessuden village, and look down upon the 



