Report of Meetings for Ibbti. By J. Hardy. 363 



" a slopping parterre in good order, and three or four pretty 

 terraces betwixt the house and the river." 



" The tower is of great strength, the walls being eleven feet 

 in thickness. A fine staircase leads upwards for a considerable 

 distance, but the upper part of the ascent has to be performed 

 by means of a narrow spiral stair of considerable steepness, with 

 many of the steps much worn. Once reached, however, the 

 summit presents a magnificent view to the eye of the visitor. 

 The banks of rocks which confine the winding Tweed, the river 

 itself as it flows over its gravelly bed, forming now and then 

 sullen pools, which again break into glittering streams, the fair 

 town of Peebles lying close at hand, the valleys covered with 

 crops and woods, and the heath-clad hills rearing their purple 

 summits to the sky, combine to form a picture of singular beauty . 

 The party were unwilling to quit a spot of so much historic 

 interest, and possessing so many features claiming the attention 

 of the antiquary; but, as a long drive lay before them, the 

 visit to Neidpath had to be compressed into half-an-hour." 



Traversing the winding wooded approach from the west, the 

 vale of Manor opens out. Oademuir, an extensive hill slope 

 covered with grass almost occupies one side. It has been spoiled 

 by cultivation, the natural grass on a poor tilly soil being more 

 nourishing than the thinly planted substitute that is produced 

 after the ground has been worn out with culture till it can bear 

 crops profitably no longer. There is still, higher up on the 

 heights, an older cultivated space marked with oxen-ploughed 

 ridges, and there are camps and standing stones, for the present 

 beyond our reach. 



"Manor ! ere lingering birks bid thee farewell, 

 And thou art meetly joined with thine own Tweed, 

 Thou circlest with thy gleam green Cademuir's steeps, 

 Where murmur of thy streams, and bleatings low, 

 And many moving shadows of the sky, 

 Dwell with the pastoral stillness of the hill ; 

 Whose wavy heights keep broken battlements, 

 And ancient raths now sunk in grassy mounds, 

 And those weird stones that know no graven mark. 

 Save grey scaurs written by the storms of years, 

 Yet silent tell us of long buried dead." 



Here we also look up to the site of the Bonnington lakes, now 

 drained, to Hundleshqpe, and the great Dollar Law at the head 

 of Manor Water. Beyond the extreme ridge that bounds the 



