Fox's Earth to Mountain Tarn 



the hillsides from grazing sheep, and the scene 

 will tell its own story. No need to plant ; trees 

 will spring up of themselves. It is not so with 

 wild creatures, which, once banished, do not appear 

 so readily. 



When Peebles was young, the ablest and most 

 interesting of the Stewarts whose attachment to 

 Jane Beaufort, formed during his long captivity 

 in England, is one of the romances of history 

 wrote of a medieval fair day when from enclosed 

 wood and forest the country folk issued to " Peebles 

 to the Play." What wild creatures were startled 

 from the way, or drawn to the edge of the trees 

 by their rude laughter, they were too much taken 

 up with themselves to see. This was from 1423 

 to 1436. From Ashestiel in 1807 Scott wrote : 



The scenes are desert now and bare, 

 Where flourished once a forest fair. 

 Yon lonely thorn, would he could tell 

 The changes of his parent dell, 

 What pines on every mountain sprung, 

 O'er every dale what birches hung. 

 Here in my shade, methinks he'd say, 

 The mighty stag at noontide lay, 

 The wolf I've seen, a fiercer game, 

 (The neighbouring dingle bears his name,) 

 With lurching step around me prowl, 

 And stop against the moon to howl. 

 The mountain boar on battle set, 

 His tusks upon my stem would whet ; 

 What doe, and roe, and red deer good, 

 Have bounded by from gay green wood. 



116 



