A BORDER TOWER 251 



persons of Edmund the son of Bonda, and Gille- 

 michel his brother, and their sons and daughters, 

 and all their future progeny, for the sum of three 

 merks (40s). 



The landscape has altered not less than the ways 

 of men. The uplands of Tweed and Yarrow, of 

 which the nakedness impressed Washington Irving 

 so unfavourably, were then almost unbroken wood- 

 land. 



' The King was cumand thro' Caddonford, 



And full five thousand men was he ; 



They saw the derke foreste them before, 



They thought it awsome fer to see.' 



Nothing more ' awsome ' is now to be seen than the 

 thriving plantations round the quiet seats of country 

 gentlemen, and all that remains of the 'derke 

 foreste' is here a birken shaw in a hill glen, and 

 there a few crouching oaks and scattered pines, as 

 on the Gateheugh cliffs opposite Old Melrose. But 

 the ' Covin Tree,' a huge Spanish chestnut, still 

 stands between the tower and the ancient ' pleuse ' 

 or pleasure-ground. Standing on this bright morn- 

 ing beneath its canopy of autumn gold, I look 

 across the valley to conscious Eildon, triply cleft, 

 and then pass along the narrow paved way down 



