IX 

 DOWN THE TWEED 



ONE has pictured a border scene as 

 a hill, a road, and a water. This is 

 not more graphic than true. So much 

 was laid bare on the thinning out of 

 the olden forest. It scarce matters which way 

 one turns, which glen one enters, the road is 

 along the lower slope or the level bank. The 

 hill is above and the stream below. 



So it is in Peeblesshire. The whole county 

 is made up of the stream, with its attendant 

 roads and environing hills. Elsewhere an acci- 

 dent, skirting the border or crossing a corner, 

 here it is the vital current. Feeders enter from 

 the side glens. Some of these glens are ruder 

 than the rest, but all may be simplified into hill, 

 road, and water. The stream is the Tweed. 



From Peebles to Ashestiel is a characteristic 

 stretch. The scene gathers more closely in. 

 The banks may broaden into the green haugh ; 

 the hills may eddy round a meadowland where 

 graze a few sheep. Only to narrow back till the 



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