36 THE VALE OF GALA. 



kill them without molestation from the water 

 bailiffs. 



There is little doubt that in early days these 

 were the Shiels of Gala, or the lonely huts of a 

 great stretch of pastoral country ; and, being in 

 the neighbourhood of plenty of wool, the inhabi- 

 tants took to the spinning of it and weaving it 

 into a coarse kind of cloth of the district, 

 Galashiels grey, and latterly, Galashiels blue, 

 being well known. In 1809, I remember piece 

 after piece of these colours, coming in alter- 

 nately per carrier, to make our best suits for 

 Sunday. Soon after, a little foreign wool was 

 beginning to be used ; but, I well remember, say 

 five years before this, of being here, and there 

 \vere none of tHese tall chimneys, which we see 

 now, some having sprung up, with gourdish 

 quickness ; and the names of steam or gas were 

 not known in all its borders. But the shepherd's 

 plaid, or more properly the maud the herdsman 

 used to wear, in all the upper wards, Sel- 



