BORDER VALLEYS AND STREAMS 105 



moments to inquire what trace may still be discernible 

 of the influence of the landscape upon the tales of war 

 and love, of feud and raid and rescue, which have made 

 that Border-land famous in our literature. 



At the outset it is desirable to realise the all- 

 important character of the valleys in the human history 

 of the uplands. From time immemorial, these strips 

 of more sheltered and cultivable ground, lying much 

 below the general level of the moorlands, have been 

 to a large extent cut off from each other by high tracts 

 of fell and peat-moss. Each of them took its name 

 from the stream which, rising far up among the moors, 

 and gathering tributary rivulets from glens on either 

 side, winds down the strip of haugh along the valley- 

 bottom. For generations past the people have looked 

 on their native stream with an affectionate regard. 1 It 

 has been the bond of union that has linked the natives 

 of each dale in one family or brotherhood. The 

 valley itself may vary its scenery as it passes across 

 different parts of the upland, here narrowing into a 

 glen, there widening into a strath ; its slopes may 

 change their aspect, now clothed in bent or purple 

 heather, now waving with bracken or birken copse- 

 wood, now striped with fields of tillage, but the clear 

 river that dashes merrily onward through these diver- 

 sities of scene unites them all into one continuous dale. 



1 Scott was familiar with this natural trait. ' " That's the Forth," 

 said the Bailie, with an air of reverence, which I have observed 

 the Scotch usually pay to their distinguished rivers. The Clyde, 

 the Tweed, the Forth, the Spey, are usually named by those who 

 dwell on their banks with a sort of respect and pride, and I have 

 known duels occasioned by any word of disparagement.' Rob Roy, 

 vol. ii., chap. xi. 



