74 IN CARLYLE'S COUNTRY. 



kept picking them up till the cart was full, and 

 giving the " lassies " a lift on their way home. Be- 

 yond Annan bridge we parted company, and a short 

 walk brought me to Repentance Hill, a grassy emi- 

 nence that commands a wide prospect toward the 

 Solway. The tower which stands on the top is one 

 of those interesting relics of which this land is full, 

 and all memory and tradition of the use and occasion 

 of which are lost. It is a rude stone structure, about 

 thirty feet square and forty high, pierced by a single 

 door, with the word " Repentance " cut in Old Eng- 

 lish letters in the lintel over it. The walls are loop- 

 holed here and there, for musketry or archery. An 

 old disused grave-yard surrounds it, and the walls of 

 a little chapel stand in the rear of it. The conies 

 have their holes under it ; some lord, whose castle 

 lies in the valley below, has his flagstaff upon it ; and 

 Time's initials are scrawled on every stone. A piece 

 of mortar probably three or four hundred years old, 

 that had fallen from its place, I picked up, and found 

 nearly as hard as the stone, and quite as gray and 

 lichen-covered. Returning, I stood some time on . 

 Annan bridge, looking over the parapet into the 

 clear, swirling water, now and then seeing a trout 

 leap. Whenever the pedestrian comes to one of 

 these arched bridges, he must pause and admire, it 

 is so unlike what he is acquainted with at home. It 

 is a real viaduct ; it conducts not merely the trav- 

 eler over, it conducts the road over as well. Then 

 an arched bridge is ideally perfect ; there is no room 



