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CHAPTER XXL 



THE LOWLANDS. 



THE observations I am about to make have reference 

 more particularly to the Lowlands, which comprise about 

 one-half of Scotland the best half yielding nine- 

 tenths of the whole produce of the country. 



The most inferior part of this division of Scotland is 

 that bordering on England, and which is more or less 

 covered with the ramifications of the Northumberland 

 hills. It consists of the three counties of Dumfries, 

 Peebles, and Selkirk, and the mountainous part of Eox- 

 burghshire, containing in all about 1,200,000 acres.'* 



Selkirk and Peeblesshire are quite Highland in their 

 character, only a tenth part being capable of cultivation. 

 This is the country so celebrated by Sir Walter. Scott 

 under the name of the Borders. The Tweed flows through 

 it, laving with its pure waters the residence of the great 

 novelist Abbotsford. The principal scenes in the Lay 

 of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and the Monastery, are 

 laid in its passes, where the war-cries of two neighbour- 

 ing and hostile people so often resounded. It was there, 

 among the shepherds' huts, that Sir Walter Scott, in his 

 youth, collected those legends which inspired his first 



* This can only be said of these districts as regards the production of grain 

 generally. Here are very valuable pastoral districts, celebrated for the^roductioii 

 especially of sheep. J. D. 



