Report of Meetings for 1886. By J. Hardy. 367 



119; Hist, of Poetry of Scottish Borders, p. 216). Attention 

 was now directed to the south side of the Tweed, to where by 

 the river side, among the weeping ground fed from the bogs on 

 the slopps aliove, small detachments of birch, alder, ash, and 

 sallow remained. This is the Dawyck wood of Pont, and the 

 only survival of indigenous arborescence. After the sheep were 

 introduced, there was probably not much more left of old wood. 

 Here we saw the farm of E. Dawyck, and an old drove or county 

 rond wending across the hills by a green track on the heathery 

 heights. This was the r<>ad from Glasgow to Berwick of the age 

 of Alexander III., when Berwick was the great mart of com- 

 merce, and Scotland was one of the most flourishing kingdoms 

 of the age, till Edward I. destroyed its prosperity, and the land 

 reverted to barbarism. There are the "Glasgow Folds" also 

 by this road still higher up, as it proceeds over the hill south- 

 wards. 



There is a great concave interval here between the river 

 and the hill-tops, with attempted cultivation in the middle. It 

 is joined behind to the hill of Scrape, heather-crowned, which 

 displays on its breast and at its base the extended woods and 

 plantations of Dawyck, here coming into view as we approach. 

 Scrape is a gigantic mass from this direction, and stretches out 

 all its mightiness. 



We have now reached the famous " Stobo Hedges," which are 

 of old planting by the Murrays of Stanhope and Stobo in the 

 eighteenth century. This was principally done at the instance 

 of Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope, " a man of eccentric char- 

 acter and jealous temper, but of accomplished tastes. We have 

 still," writes Prof. Veitch, "traces of his handiwork in the rich 

 English landscape of hedge-rows and stately trees which are to 

 be found in the pleasant haugh of the Tweed, from the Crown 

 Eord to Stobo Burn Foot,the Polternam of the Cymri." (Hist, and 

 Poet, of Borders, p. 436). They used to be notorious for getting 

 blocked up with snow in the winter, having at first been allowed 

 to grow too tall. 



The carriages stopped at Stobo Church. " Part of this build- 

 ing is very ancient, belonging to a period anterior to that to 

 which any other ecclesiastical structure in the valley of the 

 Tweed can be ascribed. The tower — the oldest part — is, from 

 its architectural features, believed to be Saxon, the nave and 

 oBancel being Norman. The tower fand indeed the whole 



