Anniversary Address. 7 



meeting, proceeded through the village and down a deep glen 

 hollowed out by the streamlet, which, further up, forms the 

 Vale of Hollyden and Bowden. It was stated that this glen 

 is deepening at the rate of a foot in ten years, and if this rate 

 could be assumed to have been constant, it would not be dif- 

 ficult to estimate the period required for making this deep 

 groove in the boulder clay. Crossing the Tweed by the abbey 

 boat, and passing the ancient quarry from which Melrose 

 Abbey is said to have been built, the members reached Dry- 

 burgh. It would be out of place for me here to describe 

 again these ruins, which have so often formed a theme for the 

 historian, the poet, and the architect ; or to review the rival 

 claims of de Morville and David I. for the honour of the 

 abbey's foundation. Suffice it to say, that the members 

 viewed with due reverence those grey walls and broken 

 arches, as well as the modern sarcophagus which covers the 

 remains of Scott. 



From Dryburgh the party recrossed the river, and after a 

 hot walk reached the church of St. Boswell's to examine 

 some sculptured stones said to exist there. Against the south 

 wall there stands a stone on which a cross can clearly be dis- 

 covered, and some of the more imaginative members thought 

 they could read the words '' Gloria Deo." On several of the 

 corners of the church and porch are grotesque heads, proba- 

 bly part of an older building. The party then retraced their 

 steps towards the Eildon hills, pursuing the line of "Watling 

 Street to Eildon, thence turning up the hill to a point, where 

 General Roy found Roman remains, which led him to place 

 here the station of Trimontium. It seems more probable, 

 however, that this important station was situated at New- 

 stead. The extraordinary camp on the southern slope of the 

 eastern hill was then visited. It is kidney shaped, being 

 accommodated to the ground on which it is situated. It is 

 formed by what may be called a " face dyke," the perpen- 

 dicular stone dyke being outwards and the slope of earth in- 

 wards. At its eastern end is a spring, and a roadway can be 

 traced from the same end down towards Eildon. This camp 



