22 Anniversary Address. 



the view from Langton Edge. Seldom could this celebrated 

 view have been more " glorious," to use Burns's enthusiastic 

 epithet, than as it presented itself when the party, chiefly on foot 

 for the horses' sake, had slowly climbed to the top of the long 

 ascent. The weather was magnificent ; the atmosphere clear ; 

 the sun's rays tempered by a thin veil of cloud. The splendid 

 panorama lay under the eye, its bounding line on the horizon 

 stretching from the Fame Isles and Bamborough Castle on the 

 east, along the Cheviots and Liddesdale Hills to the west, where 

 it was closed by Euberslaw and the Eildon Hills in the middle 

 distance ; while within this wide environment of hill expanded 

 the rich and wooded Merse and lower Teviotdale in all the ful- 

 ness of summer prime. The view, both in the clear air of the 

 forenoon, and in the afternoon on the return journey when 

 a slight haze added a new charm to the landscape, commanded 

 the admiration of every member of the party. With reluctance 

 they turned their backs upon it, and re-entering the conveyances 

 proceeded on their journey. Soon another horizon opened up. 

 The ridge of Langton Edge being surmounted, the eye could 

 range in one direction far over the Selkirkshire hills to the 

 mountains which rise around " dark Loch Skene," among which 

 Whitecombe and Loch Craig were distinguishable ; while in an- 

 other the two Dirringtoiis, Great and Little, rose close at hand, 

 with Twinlaw Cairns beyond. After this not much occurred in the 

 few fields, and among the moory and swampy ground, and young 

 fir plantations which bordered the road, to attract the eye of a 

 naturalist. Several wheat- ears jerked their short flights along 

 some stone walls, and a few pipits were seen. In along planta- 

 tion just before the road descends into the valley of the Dye, a 

 spotted fly-catcher was observed. Afterwards the whin- chat, the 

 white-throat, the wren, the grey and pied wagtail occurred at 

 different places ; but bird-life was not abundant along the line of 

 excursion. In the long plantation referred to, many prostrate 

 trunks gave evidence of the severity of the gale of the 14th Octo- 

 ber, 1881, which here, as elsewhere throughout Berwickshire, had 

 worked havoc among woods. 



At Longformacus the party were met by Captain Brown, the 

 Rev. George Cook, minister of the parish, and the Eev. George 

 Wilson, of Glenluce, a gentleman whose geological and antiqua- 

 rian knowledge of the locality contributed greatly to the pleasure 

 of the visit. Of the place itself Mr Hardy, who with his usual 



