54 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



indeed, is hardly perceptible ; the only specimen of our 

 race seen all day was an old man with a vast bushy 

 beard and a pack on his back, who was resting in the 

 shade of the trees and trying to light his pipe with a 

 burning glass. He was "jest seeking a wee bit pickle o' 

 W " (wool), and had walked "from Scotch Belford, no' that 

 awfu' far," though by the map I see it is a dozen miles or 

 more. Poor old soul ! he reckoned a pound of wool, worth 

 sixpence, a fair good day's pick, and spent his life wander- 

 ing about these wild hills gathering stray scraps of wool and 

 depending on the charity of the shepherds for chance 

 accommodation. Yet he was not a tramp : that is quite a 

 different species, and one that is remarkably abundant all 

 over the Borders. At the head of the glen lies Langlee- 

 ford, a lonely farmstead and the last house in England, 

 beautifully ensconced among pine-woods a protection 

 from the snow-blasts that in winter sweep down from 

 Cheviot. To-day, however, the heat is tropical, but for the 

 light breeze that comes laden with the delicious fragrance of 

 the pines and the hawthorn, of the rowan and woodbine, and 

 a score of nature's exquisite perfumes. 



From Langlee-ford we "take the hill," and the climb 

 commences in earnest. At first the ascent is over ordinary 

 moorland, with bracken-beds, now in their beautiful emerald 

 green stage. From the heather close by spring three or 

 four cheeping half-grown fledgelings. They are young 

 Grouse ; and at the same moment there is a flutter and scuffle 

 a few yards away, as their anxious mother flaps along the 

 ground as though winged and disabled. How admirably she 

 diverts one's attention at the very instant her brood need an 

 opportunity to escape unseen ! Not till they are all in safety 

 do the old Grouse take wing the old cock all the time 

 crouching within a few yards. Grouse are noble parents 

 very different to their cousin, the Blackcock, who after the 

 vernal courting, never again looks near his numerous wives 

 and families. 



Leaving the gaunt cone of Hedgehope on the left, the flat 

 summit of Cheviot presently comes in view, still far above. 

 Gradually, as we ascend, the heather grows less and less 



