364 Mr Hardy on Langleyford Vale and the Cheviots. 



I sometimes question if these thorns are native here. 

 They may he said to be so now, having been dispersed by 

 birds. Not far from the road, there is a series arranged as if 

 on the line of an old fence. Hawthorn hedges are not modern 

 improvements. In 1552, enclosures on the Borders were 

 directed to be " double set with Quick wood " ;* and none of 

 these bushes are three hundred years old. Be this as it 

 may, they are distributed on these hills over various places 

 once occupied by the British people, springing even from 

 the centre of their hut-circles. They are numerous at 

 Yeavering, and again at Heathpool. We have here, also, as 

 happens at Heathpool, a stray bush of elder among the 

 glitters, testifying to former human vicinage; for I cannot 

 account it wild, as some have done. Our northern elders 

 never occur in a thicket, asserting their birthright. 



Here we have many tokens of the former primitive in- 

 habitants. The first to be noticed is an oblong structure, 

 built without lime, with three compartments. In the opinion 

 of the old shepherds, it was a bught for milking ewes or 

 assorting sheep. As it has small doors, it was as likely to be 

 a stable, or cattle stall. Its name, " Frater's walls," rather 

 betokens recent tenancy. Among the boulders at the base 

 of the glitters are examples of rude hut-circles, little better 

 than earth-pits. Very wretched they must have been, and 

 infested with adders, as they are now. A modern shepherd's 

 hut on the hill-side shows pretty much what they would be : 

 it is horse-shoe shaped ; and there is a pavement of smoother 

 stones on the floor to keep the body from the wet soil, which 

 becomes quite saturated in winter and in rainy weather ; 

 and over that a coating of withered brackens. Farther up, 

 on the heights, ancient folds have been constructed of grey 

 tumbling rocks, and have been adapted to modern wants also. 

 The British road crosses from the Langlee side, and ascends 

 this hill. 



Many of the alders in the bogs by the way-side are of 

 unknown antiquity. John Ray, or Daniel Defoe (the latter 

 mentions them), may have looked on them nearly two cen- 

 turies ago. There are few of them that are not buttressed at 

 the base, from the power they have of self-repair. After 

 living to a good old age, the tree begins to droop, but some 

 lively young shoot takes up the growth, and transmits a 

 * Nicolson's " Border Laws," p. 220. 



