Statements concerning Sir Walter Scott. 275 



of the rivers. The distance must be fully eight miles; but 

 Galashiels, the nearest town, which was five by the road 

 through the ford, was as much when the round by the Yair 

 bridge had to be made, and, of course, at an earlier time 

 there was probably no bridge either at Yair or over the 

 Ettrick at Selkirk, which was about eight miles from Ashie- 

 steel also. At present, by what is called Ashiesteel bridge, 

 though the end rests on Yair ground, Galashiels is rather 

 further than by the old direct road. Walking over the hill 

 the parish church of Yarrow is also about eight miles from 

 Ashiesteel ; by the road much more. 



The Scotts, who had always lived near a church till they 

 came to Ashiesteel, considered the distance to Traquair 

 impossible, and Sir Walter regularly read the service of the 

 Church of England, on Sunday, to his family and guests. 



A whimsical mistake, regarding the Kussells of the south 

 of Scotland, is recorded by the most systematic writer we 

 have in the lighter matters of family and local history. 



In a small volume of genealogical studies, entitled "Scottish 

 Surnames," Mr Paterson says, in a note to page 56: — 



' In a MS. collection by Balfour, Lyon King of Arms, 

 1630, the Eussell arms are "Argent, a cheveron between 

 three greinplovers, sable," which is precisely the same as 

 given in the Harleian MS. The arms of the Russells of 

 Kingseat were "Argent, a cheveron between three powets, 

 within a border, all sable. Crest, a fountain proper. Motto, 

 Agitatione Purgatur.^^ The inference is therefore strong that 

 they were originally of that ilk.' 



The Lyon King at Arms meant is, I suppose. Sir James 

 Balfour, and his MS. is in the Advocate's Library. And 

 he or his authority has read powets — that is, powheads or 

 tadpoles — as pewits, which are also called green plovers. 



The Russells of the north of Scotland have quite different 

 arms, * and they are in part the same as those of the Duke 

 of Bedford. 



The notion of regarding the Duke of Bedford as the head 

 of the Scotch Russells has nothing absurd in it so far that, 

 when the clan was a municipal reality, it was often made 

 up in a very miscellaneous way, as a matter of choice or 

 convenience, and did not, except theoretically, imply relation- 

 ship. Here the importance of heraldry comes in. 



