424 Meetings of Berwickshire Naturalists Club, by J. Hardy. 



like a boat's, is " the Steel ;" a steel being " the lower part of a 

 ridge projecting from a hill, where the ground declines on each 

 side." 



Looking up the wide intervening hollow to the distant ridge, 

 we can mark the place where the road runs that crosses to 

 Minchmoor, by which the scattered remnant of Montrose's routed 

 army fled from Philiphaugh ; and where, by the wayside, sur- 

 vives a fragment of the Catrail, on the Brown Knowe, and 

 known by the name of Wallace's Trench. This is the spot where 

 Scott told his young friends, the sons of Mr Pringle of Yair, his 

 tales of " Wallace wight :" 



" And pointing to his airy mound 

 I called his ramparts holy ground ; 

 Kindled their brows to hear me speak ; 

 And I have smiled, to feel my cheek 

 Despite the difference of our years, 

 Keturn again the glow of theirs." 



Above Peel, in the Ordnance Map, "Hawthorn" is indicated 

 — possibly the " lonely Thorn, " to which there is a special in- 

 dividuality assigned, in the Introduction to the second canto of 

 "Marmion." The Wolf's Glen in William's Hope is the 

 "neighbouring dingle," there alluded to, as bearing the name 

 of the fierce prowler of those wilds in the olden time ; a local 

 fact which one might be apt to overlook as the poet's own inven- 

 tion. The North and South Grains of Peel burn run in this hope. 



Turning again towards Ashiesteel, we see across the Tweed 

 the slopes of Caddon-lee, sprinkled with stony glitters, and many 

 a wild hawthorn tree ; and far up on the open lies a shepherd's 

 dwelling called Trinly Knowes, beneath which old balks of 

 ancient culture were unmistakeable in the sober light. Laidlaw- 

 steel was also within prospect. 



Trinly Knowes and "Cadounlie" were old Forest-steads; in 

 1628 the first belonged to Andrew Eiddell of Hayning, and the 

 second to George Pringill of Torwodlie. (Inquis. Valorum, p. 

 14). The prospect cannot be called cheerful, being as Words- 

 worth says of it — 



" More pensive in sunshine 

 Than others in moonshine." 



Passing the lodge, the " Howe Burly," the brawling brook, in 

 the ravine between the lands of Ashiesteel and Peel was crossed. 

 It was this ravine that hemmed the poet's " little garden in." 



