392 A Mid-Lothian Burn, [Sess. 



Lothian district, and the knotty geranium {Geranium 

 nodosum)^ an alien species which seems to be well estab- 

 lished quite near the burn in one locality. 



" Ko more to-day " had just escaped our lips, when we 

 came in sight of the Old Bridge, an interesting relic of a 

 bygone age. What fascination is here ! Forgetful of the 

 hour, we linger long while imagination calls up for us success- 

 ive scenes in Time's ever-changing pageant. First a hollow 

 rumbling, and our bridge shudders at the passing of the 

 " meikle bombard," Mons Meg of modern days, on her slow 

 way to quell the power of an arrogant Douglas in Hatton's 

 ancient pile. Years roll by, and now a company of horsemen ; 

 and chief to catch the eye is one whose flowing beard the 

 prisons and galleys of France have whitened before its time 

 — John Knox, — westward bound for Calder House, there to 

 dispense the Sacrament — the first sacrament of Eeformed 

 Scotland. Anon another band of horsemen, but what a con- 

 trast to that last, and how different its mission ! Grim old 

 Dalzell of the Binns, he of the long snow-white vow-beard, 

 uncut since the death of his sovereign master Charles I., 

 sweeps past at the head of his "grey dragoons." Eullion 

 Green and the southern Pentland slopes will know of this 

 band before evening falls. And what of that other company 

 — that moving conventicle of prayer and sermon — who early 

 yester-morn crossed our burn some three miles down ? James 

 Wallace, their ill-starred leader, says, " It was one of the 

 darkest nights, I am persuaded, that any in that company 

 saw. Except we had been tied together, it was impossible to 

 keep together, and every little burn was a river." And again, 

 " Through that sore night of frost and snow they marched 

 rather like dying men than soldiers going to conquer." Our 

 bridge was spared that pitiful sight. 



Dreaming thus, a motor-car whirls past in clouds of dust 

 on the niodern road hard by, and we rudely wake to the fact 

 that ours is another age. Other times, other requirements ; 

 the dangerous turn and the fairly steep gradient must take 

 place, and here we have the new bridge with its greatly 

 heightened roadway. On the rising ground to our left stand 

 the ruins of a farmhouse, burnt down some thirty years ago, 



