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The Liberalis Stone. By Rev. Robert Borland, 

 Yarrow. 



It was in the year 1803 that this famous Stone was first 

 discovered. It was embedded in the soil about a foot from 

 the surface, and was turned up by the plough when breaking 

 in part of the hill on the farm of Whitehope. Standing 

 about half a mile to the West of Yarrow Kirk, and near the 

 roadside, it forms a conspicuous object on the landscape, and 

 at once arrests the attention of the passer-by. It is visited 

 by large numbers every year, and for long the inscription 

 on its surface baffled the skill of the most famous experts. 

 At the time of its discovery Sir Walter Scott was sheriff of 

 Selkirkshire, and was on the eve of taking up his abode in 

 the parish of Yarrow at Ashiestiel on the Tweed. He was 

 greatly interested in the discovery, and along with Mungo 

 Park, John Leyden, and others, he tried to decipher the 

 inscription, but without success The first edition of his 

 Minstrelsy had just been issued from the printing press of 

 James Ballantyne of Kelso, and consequently it contains no 

 notice of this famous monument. But when the second 

 edition appeared, not long after, there was an interesting 

 paragraph added to his notes on the ballad of the " Dowie 

 Dens of Yarrow." It runs thus: — "In ploughing Annan's 

 Treat, a huge monumental stone, with an inscription, was 

 discovered ; but being rather scratched than engraved, and 

 tlie lines being run through each other, it is only possible 

 to read one or two Latin words. It probably records the 



