1855. THE ADVANTAGES OF TRAVEL. 411 



"DEAR MOTHER, This place is called Mel-Rose, or Kosa 

 Mellis, i.e., Honey Rose, from a famous rose which used to grow 

 here, and drop honey from its leaves. That was in the time of 

 the pious old monks, but in these degenerate days, the roses 

 have ceased to drop anything but their leaves, and occasionally 

 a caterpillar, and are turned into cabbage roses. . . . Yesterday 

 we discovered the Tweed, after a day and a half's search for it, 

 and found it very thick and muddy ; I am afraid it has been 

 adulterated." He spent some hours of each day writing under 

 the trees of the Abbey Garden, kindly thrown open to the 

 public by its proprietor, Mr. Tait of Prior Bank. " I am taken 

 for an artist, and have been seen by many parties sketching 

 Melrose Abbey, and why should I take a fit of egotistical obsti- 

 nacy, and deny that I ever used the old abbey so ill as to at- 

 tempt to draw it. Mr. Duncan Maclaren is not a man easily 

 deceived, and Dr. Brown belongs to a profession famous for its 

 acuteness. They both saw me sketching, and it would be rude 

 in me to contradict them. However, I can't find the sketch 

 anywhere in my portfolio, otherwise I would send it. 



" The mutton here is excellent, and for a very good reason ; 

 the sheep feed upon apples. You'll be saying that's some of my 

 nonsense, but it is not. I have been studying the ways of the 

 sheep that share the garden lawn with me. We are now good 

 friends, and they feed close to me, taking me, as Jessie affirms, 

 for a shepherd, whom in my hat and plaid I much resemble. 

 The lawn is in large part an orchard, and my friends look out 

 diligently for the fallen apples, and munch them up as if they 

 were turnips. To-day the gardener mounted a tree, and fell to 

 shaking down the apples, whereupon a wise lamb stepped for- 

 ward, proposing to try their quality, and an altercation arose 

 between it and the gardener, ending in the victory of the latter 

 tyrannical person. You see the advantages of travel. I might 

 have remained long enough at Elm Cottage without learning 

 the singular fact in natural history I have just recorded. Nor 

 is it the only one I have learned, as you shall find when we re- 

 turn. It would be wrong to come back from Sir Walter Scott's 

 Land, and not romance a little. His own house, by the way, is 

 one of the least romantic we have seen ; but the country is won- 



