394 -^ Mid-Lothian Buiti, [Sess. 



our friend again, and, ten minutes later, arrive at the point 

 where it flows from underneath the railway. What a wealth 

 of growth is here ! Along the margin of the field, the narrow 

 strip untouched by the ploughshare is overgrown with breast- 

 high nettles and grasses, while the stream itself is all but 

 hidden here and there in the luxuriant growth of butter-bur 

 and willow-weed. This was an oft-visited spot, and three 

 slides which we have picture it at different periods. First, 

 early summer, with its varied range of greens varied to the 

 eye, but so much alike when transferred to the uncorrected 

 plate. A colour plate alone could have depicted what we 

 saw. Then November, grey and chill, with empty fields again 

 ready for the plough, gives quite another picture of this out- 

 of-the-way corner. Next a snow-clad landscape induced us 

 to take the now familiar road. The March sun seemed hotter 

 than its usual, and the rapidly blackening branches of the 

 trees we passed, warned us to hurry if our long-wished-for 

 snowscape was to be realised. A furrowed field lying 

 under snow some inches deep scarcely provided the best 

 of going, and we were in anything but the fittest condition 

 for a hand camera exposure when our destination was 

 reached. 



From here the character of the land drained by the burn 

 greatly changes. Wide open fields take the place of swelling 

 wooded country. Through these corn-lands it winds its way 

 past wind-blown solitary trees marking out its course of grace- 

 ful curves. A farmhouse appears in sight, and near at hand 

 a ford which requires but the ploughman with his wearied 

 team to complete the picture. A wooden bridge here spans 

 the stream, and within a short distance of it we secure on 

 different occasions several good photographs. 



The farmhouse on the slightly rising ground to the right is 

 called Kedheugh, and from there the eye roams eastwards over 

 a beautiful stretch of country, which until the later years of 

 the seventeenth century was covered with water — the over- 

 flow from our burn in times of flood. By cutting the Stank 

 and other drains about 1670 and later, this western loch was 

 drained. Another sweeping curve, bordered by neither bush 

 nor tree — cheerless and pictureless we thought it that day our 

 snow - scenes were obtained — carries us between Millburn 



