440 liecollections of a Gardening Tour. 



August 2. — Peebles to Melrose. The country is beautifully 

 varied by hills, some of which are wooded, and others cultivated, 

 and exhibiting fields of turnips, and barley or wheat, to the very 

 summits. 



Traquair. We went through that curious old place, Tra- 

 quair, where the kitchen-garden walls are 1 8 ft. high, and were 

 coped with turf now bearing a rich crop of grass and weeds, 

 the seeds of which were nearly ready for being distributed over 

 the garden by the winds. In this garden were excellent crops, 

 particularly of strawberries, but we did not find the gardener at 

 home. In the herb ground we found elecampane, lovage, hore- 

 hound, and a number of other herbs formerly cultivated in all 

 gardens, but now generally neglected. Traquair House has 

 nothing modern about it, not even a full-sized sash window, and 

 the main entrance has no gravelled road up to it ; as, till lately, 

 was the case at Knowle in Kent, and, by imitation of old places, 

 at Fonthill Abbey. There is a grand terrace on the other front, 

 and the main body of the house is flanked by square pavilions. 

 Altogether it is a great curiosity as a gentleman's residence ; and 

 it was not without difficulty that we obtained liberty to drive up 

 to it, the Earl of Traquair being from home. 



Abbotsford ; Sir Walter Scott, Bart. So much has been said of 

 this celebrated place, that we shall pass it over with scarcely any 

 remarks. Sir Walter Scott's taste was antiquarian rather than 

 artistic, and he has produced such a building and gardens as 

 might have been expected from his peculiar partialities, and his 

 facilities for obtaining fragments of antiquity. The house is a 

 curious piece of patchwork, but such as must have afforded 

 great satisfaction to its gifted proprietor in forming it. We 

 could not get access to the gardens, which, we were told, were 

 planted with potatoes, nor to any part of the place that could 

 be considered as ornamental scenery. 



The roads in this part of the country are excellent, and the 

 scenery a fine combination of the beautiful picturesque, and 

 agricultural cultivation. Some of the hills are conical, and 

 ploughed over the very summits; others are crowned with wood, 

 which, in some cases, stretches down their sides, in masses and 

 hedge-row strips, till it reaches the margin of a river, or the 

 verge of a meadow. There is every appearance of prosperity 

 and comfort ; but the bands of women seen hoeing turnips re- 

 minded us that all was not as it ought to be, and as we trust 

 it will be in another generation ; for we cannot think that, in a 

 state of high civilisation, women will continue to be employed 

 in field work. We arrived at Melrose in time to see the ruins 

 of the abbey with good daylight, and we remained among them 

 till it was quite dark. 



( To be continued. ) 



