78 Plants, &c. of Selkirkshire, by Rev. J. Farquharson. 



hills, which, rise in height as one passes westward. The most 

 easterly range, the high ground between the Ale and Borthwick, 

 and the Ettrick — more interrupted by side valleys, and less dis- 

 tinctly in range than the other two — is surpassed in height and 

 steepness by the hills between the Ettrick and the Yarrow ; and 

 these again do not equal the summits between the Yarrow and 

 the Tweed, where may be found some of the highest ground in 

 the south of Scotland. The first range averages, in its highest 

 points, from 1200 to 1700 feet above sea-level; the second from 

 1500 to 1900; while west of the Yarrow many of the summits 

 rise considerably above 2000 feet. These ranges are penetrated 

 by innumerable narrow glens, each sending down its tributary 

 burn to the river in the valley. Viewed from any of the heights 

 near Selkirk, the glens and even the greater valleys are invisible. 

 The " Forest," stretching away to the south-west, presents the 

 appearance of a billowy sea of hills, without habitation, and with 

 but few traces of the handiwork of man. Hill rises beyond hill, 

 and ridge beyond ridge, bare and treeless, for the most part tame 

 in outline, and presenting none of those peaks and precipitous 

 corries, which give grandeur to the scenery of the northern High- 

 lands. But these tame, broad-featured, green hills, and their 

 treeless upper valleys and glens, on a closer acquaintance, have 

 a beauty and charm of their own. Wordsworth caught the 

 spirit of the scene, and gave it expression in his "Yarrow 

 Visited :"— 



" Meek loveliness is round thee spread, 

 A softness still and holy ; 

 The grace of forest charms decayed, 

 And pastoral melancholy." 



And when the traveller descends into the lower valleys, and 

 follows their course, he will acknowledge that it needed not the 

 romance of Border ballad and story, nor the genius of Sir Walter 

 Scott, which has touched the whole land as with a magic wand, 

 to make the district one of the most attractive in Scotland. The 

 natural features of the scenery, and the woodland beauties which 

 have been added in later years, combine to render the valleys of 

 Ettrick Forest a joy to the lover of Nature, and to draw visitors 

 in increasing numbers to the ancient hunting-ground of the Scot- 

 tish kings, as a delightful field for the rambles of either tourist 

 or naturalist. 



