464 Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 



series of ballads on the battle bear the impress of traditions of 

 the sylvan attributes of the neighbourhood. 



" The birds fly wild from tree to tree." 

 " The rest were slaine in Chevy-Chase, 



Under the greenwood tree." 

 " Then on the morn they made them beerys, 



Of byrch and hasell greye." 

 " O bury me by the braken bush, 



Beneath the blooming breer." 



The old British camp is double-ringed, and is now divided by a 

 stone dike. The slopes were grassy, the " lilly lee" of the ballad, 

 but the summit is sufficiently elevated to carry heather. This is 

 the " bent sae brown," on which the Scots " lighted high," " and 

 threw their pallions down," securing a defensible position, as 

 well as a free look out above the woods, towards the Newcastle 

 road whence the approach of the English might be expected. 



We were fortunate to. have Mr Arkle's guidance, as he had 

 studied the ground minutely, when he surveyed it to construct 

 the map contributed to Mr Eobert White's History of the Battle. 

 It was next to having with us '' the old man eloquent," who 

 wrote the book ; who, had he been alive, would, I am most sure, 

 have been proud to have accompanied us in our pilgrimage, even 

 to the high places of the field ; and in our hearing " fought his 

 battle o'er again." But, alas ! 



" Fate drives us from the fields of youth, 

 And no returning step allows." 



The last time I met the author, this publication was one of the 

 subjects of conversation. He intended, for he looked hopefully 

 forward to many days to come, to re-issue the now scarce work, 

 as well as '' Bannockburn," in a popular form, to keep alive the 

 spirit of patriotism in the rising race. 



Being beyond the season for singing birds, a great silence pre- 

 vailed. A ruinous peel, rent into two dark columns, stood at a 

 little distance on the left, and Davy-shiels noted in the Lay of the 

 Eedewater Minstrel for its "gowks," was pointed out in a northerly 

 direction. In the lawless stage of Border History " Davie scheill" 

 had unenviable attractions for the Scotch reivers. (See p. 224, 

 note of the present vol.) But that has passed away, and we have 

 now the better times of which the native poet sings — 



" Sweet Eedesdale, thro' thy winding glens 

 No more shall hostile tumult roar ; 



