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Linton and its Legends, By Charles Wilson, M.D. 



On approaching, from the northward, the narrow outlet through 

 which the mountain stream of the Kail issues from the range 

 of the Cheviots, to meander through the more open plain which 

 expands itself at their base, we come suddenly, by a short and 

 abrupt descent, on the romantic site of the little church of 

 Linton. 



The prospect from the brow of the height which overhangs 

 the church is one of quiet and simple beauty. Its leading fea- 

 tures are the stately woods surrounding the mansion-house of 

 Clifton; the church itself, with the remarkable grassy knoll 

 upon which it is elevated; the level expanse tracked by the 

 windings of the little river ; the village of Morbattle perched on 

 an eminence beyond it; and the heights of the Cheviots, ascend- 

 ing in gradations till their loftier summits bound the distance. 

 A farm-hamlet, or a group of cottages, strewed here and there 

 among the corn-fields, or on the green slopes, denotes the rural 

 character of the population ; who live here peacefully in that 

 seclusion which is not obscurity, surrounded by the tokens of 

 their skilful industry ; and virtuously in the aggregate, or with 

 faults which rarely pass beyond an occasional excess at the vil- 

 lage tavern, or a breach of the game-laws. It requires a closer 

 inspection to point out to us the roof of the manse, peering from 

 behind its screen of foliage ; the humble tomb-stones scattered 

 over the church knoll ; and the lane, overshadowed by elm and 

 ash-tree, that leads, with a solemnizing influence, to the spot 

 where, for long centuries, the path to eternity has been marked 

 forth from among the mouldering relics of time. 



There are few modern associations, connected with the locality 

 or its inhabitants, which are sufficiently prominent to impress 

 themselves upon the memory : though he would be but a cold 

 observer who could not look with pleasure on the small pastoral 

 estate of Wideopen, which is seen rising eastward from the Kail, 

 and which was once the inheritance of the poet Thomson, who 

 is said to have here composed his Winter, and to have gathered 

 many of the materials for its scenes and incidents, and descrip- 

 tions, from the ordinary experience of life among the " hopes 

 and scaurs " of the surrounding hills. 



And yet there is no locality in this district, on which the 

 history of the more remote past is written with deeper traces, 

 than on that now before us. The designations of many of the 

 separate elevations of the range of the Cheviots reveal to us the 

 ancient occupation of the country by a tribe of the Celts ; while 

 the names of the hamlets, as Tofts, Morbattle, Caverton (A.-S. 

 Ceafertun, a hall, an inclosure), Otterburn, Whitton, Linton 



