S04 tiepori of Meetings for 1886. By J. Hardy. 



vale, lie the Blackhouse heights, . and the water-shed where 

 Douglas Burn — a tributary of the Yarrow — collects. Let us 

 again quote the language of our distinguished guide. 



" Great Heights of Hundleshope ! that ward the vales 



Of Manor and of Tweed, and grandly bar 



The southern sky, should ye remain unsung r 



Ye that enfold the Alpine glens, wherein 



At high noon -tide the shadows lie unscared 



In presence of the sun ! How many sights 



Ye've shown to me ! How many thoughts ye've stirred 



And feelings wrought, since first, in youthful awe, 



I eager peex*ed into your far dark halls. 



That oped and closed 'mid drapery of mist ! 



And how I wondered what quaint shapes ye had, 



And what might lie beneath that sky outstretched 



Away beyond your tops, so sacred kept 



From curious eyes and reach of tiny feet!" 



The Tweed, By John Veitch, LL.D., pp. 28-29. 

 On the flat wooded track across the Tweed stood the venerable 

 house of Barnes, the oldest mansion on the Tweed, and the 

 white-washed new mansion, which had also a weather-beaten 

 air about it. The old house, besides having a quaint aspect, is 

 notable for its grated iron door or yett. This is figured in Proc. 

 Ant. Soc. Scot., 1882-3, pp. 101, 105. The house is represented 

 there also, p. 103, and the old and new houses, in Chambers' 

 Hist, of Peeblesshire, at pp. 117, 401 respectively. They 

 belonged till recently to the very ancient family of Burnet, but 

 the Earl of Wemyss is now the possessor. Before we cross a 

 burn, but better seen afterwards, on our right hand stand two 

 swelling heights, a little behind the. concavity encircling the 

 Lyne valley, called from their heathery or grassy investiture, 

 the Black and White Meldon hills. There is a British fort on 

 the top of the White hill. The Meldon burn joins Lyne. Before 

 we reach Lyne there is an Inch or islet in the river with two or 

 three firs, willows, and alders growing in it. It is merely notable 

 for its name the Inch, at Kelso it would be called an Ana. The 

 bridge that crosses the road is the " Biggar Brig." The situ- 

 ation of Lyne Kirk, and the corner where the Roman Camp lies 

 is rather concealed, but adjacent to the road. Far up the Lyne, 

 near a hill side, where hay was standing in dun-hued pikes 

 among a pale green sward, arose the dark bulk of Drochill 

 Castle, the proposed retreat of Eegent Morton from the world's 

 cares and a life's wickedness, whose completion he yearned for 



