268 Mr. Hardy o)i the Wolf in Scotland. 



been defended by several steep terraces, and altogether to 

 have features not ordinarily found in these structures. 



Of the beauties of the landscape in which Kelso is situated, 

 the nlembers v^^ill think it superfluous that I should speak. I 

 may however conclude with the oft quoted lines from Ley- 

 den's Scenes of Infancy : — 



Bosom'd in woods where mighty rivers run 

 Kelso's fait vale expands before the sun ; 

 Its rising downs in vernal beauty swell, 

 And fringed with hazel, winds each flowery dell. 

 Green spangled plains to dimpling lawns succeed, 

 And Tempe rises on the banks of Tweed ; 

 Blue o'er the river Kelso's shadow lies, 

 And copse-clad isles amid the waters rise. 



History of the Wolf in Scotland. By James Hardy. 



"But when the "Western Empire was o'er-run 

 By Vandal, Goth, and Saracen, and Hun, 

 The fleecy charge and precious milken store, 

 Seem'd swept from off the desolated shore. 

 Far from the dreary night of Gothic gloom, 

 Our northern isles did freedom then relume : 

 Our Scottish foresires, then a shepherd race, 

 Did tend their flocks — or rous'd the cheering chace ; 

 These hills and glens and wooded wilds can tell, 

 How many wolves, and boars, and deers then fell." 



Campbell's Grampians Desolate, p. 102. 



Of the original animals, which, in the progress of civilization 

 have been extirpated from the country, the Wolf was one of 

 the most formidable. In former times, it appears to have 

 been spread over the greater part of Scotland, a fact attested 

 both by history and tradition ; by the public archives as well 

 as by the names associated with its ravages and haunts. 



Some antiquarians have been of opinion, that the mode of 

 burying practised by the native Britons or their immediate 

 successors, may have originated in the dread inspired by 

 wolves.* They enclosed, it is conjectured, the urn contain- 

 ing the ashes of their relative, or the corpse itself, with 

 ponderous slabs of stone, as a protection from their infuri- 

 ated appetites. Wolves, as is well known from their history, 

 when constrained by hunger, fall upon the sepulchres of the 

 dead, and riot in the unhallowed spoil. There were un- 

 doubtedly occasions when such precautions were necessary. 



* Heron's Journey through part of Scotland, i. p. 217. 



