246 OCTOBER 



country-houses caruerunt quia vote sacro ; but never- 

 more shall one pass through this land indifferent to 

 the apocalypse which dawned with the Lay of the 

 Last Minstrel. Look round from where I am stand- 

 ing now, on Bemersyde hill, how familiarity has 

 deepened tender reverence for such names as 



' Ercildoune and Cowdenknowes 



Where Homes had ance commanding, 

 And Drygrange with its milk-white ewes 



'Twixt Tweed and Leader standing. 

 The bird that flies through Eedpath trees 



And Gladswood banks each morrow 

 May chant and sing sweet Leader Haugh, 



And bonny howms o' Yarrow.' 



In the last journey made by Walter Scott beside 

 his beloved river, a deeply sorrowing procession 

 passed close by the ancient tower of Bemersyde, 

 following his remains to their resting-place in Dry- 

 burgh Abbey. In one respect this fortalice is dis- 

 tinguished among many scores of others built to 

 protect the Scottish Marches namely, that from 

 the time when earliest mention of it occurs, it has 

 remained in the possession of a single family. Seven 

 centuries may be reckoned by an ice-age theorist 

 but as a watch in a geological night yet are there 

 passing few lands held in Scotland at the present 



