306 SETS OUT FOR LONDON. PART V ITT. 



architecture with which the Old Town abounds. He also 

 made several journeys to the beautiful old chapel of 

 Kosslyn, in the highly ornamented Gothic style, situated 

 some miles to the south of Edinburgh, making careful 

 drawings of the more important parts of that building. 



When he had thus improved himself " and studied 

 all that was to be seen in Edinburgh, in returning to 

 the western border," he says, " I visited the justly cele- 

 brated Abbey of Melrose." There he was charmed by 

 the delicate and perfect workmanship still visible even 

 in the ruins of that fine old Abbey ; and with his 

 folio filled with sketches and drawings, he made his 

 way back to Eskdale and the humble cottage at The 

 Crooks. But not to remain there long. He merely 

 wished to pay a parting visit to his mother and rela- 

 tions before starting upon a longer journey. " Having 

 acquired," he says in his Autobiography, " the rudiments 

 of my profession, I considered that my native country 

 afforded few opportunities of exercising it to any extent, 

 and therefore judged it advisable (like many of my 

 countrymen) to proceed southward, where industry might 

 find more employment and be better remunerated." 



Before setting out he called upon all his old friends and 

 acquaintances in the dale the neighbouring farmers, 

 who had befriended him and his mother when struggling 

 with poverty his schoolfellows, many of whom were 

 preparing to migrate, like himself, from their native 

 valley and the many friends and acquaintances he had 

 made whilst working as a mason in Langholm. Every- 

 body knew that Tarn was going south, and all wished him 

 Grod speed. At length the leave-taking was over, and he 

 set out for London in the year 1782, when twenty-five 

 years of age. He had, like the little river Meggat, on the 

 banks of which he was born, floated gradually on towards 

 the outer world : first from the nook in the valley, to 

 Westerkirk school ; then to Langholm and its little circle ; 

 and now, like the Meggat, which flows with the Esk into 



