EIVERS : THE TWEED. 15 



uses. The game of the naturalist will disappear with them, or 

 be replaced by species of considerably minor interest. 



" The principal rivers are the Tweed, Whiteadder, Blackadder, 

 and Leader. The smaller streams are the Eye, Dye, Ale and 

 Leet, besides a great number of burns that cannot be particu- 

 larized*." The pleasantest method of examining the county is 

 for the naturalist to follow these rivers and burns throughout 

 their devious courses. 



The Tweed enters our district below Melrose, when it has 

 already become a large river. From the stony character of its 

 channel, and the quick pace of its pure water, the Tweed is not 

 favourable for the production of a profusion of aquatic animals 

 or plants, but very favourable for the breeding of fish of the 

 salmon kind. It rolls on from Melrose, washes the base of the 

 Cowden-knowes, 



" and, gently gliding round 

 The broom-clad skirts of that fair spot of ground," 



reaches the Abbey of Dryburgh, where it makes a turn upon 

 itself, as if "loath to leave the sweet domain f." Then hasten- 

 ing, the waters hurry with confused speed over the Trows at 

 Makerston J, to reach the beautiful policy of the Fleurs, which 

 is passed " with a soft yet trotting stream." And so, enlarged 

 by union with the Teviot, the river passes Kelso, which it 

 clips " with a close embrace ; " traverses a sunny haugh which 

 leads successively to Sprouston, to Wark-castle, to Birgham- 

 haugh, to Lees and to Coldstream ; and thence still onwards to 

 Lennel and its braes, to Tillmouth, to Milne-Graden, around the 

 demesne of Ladykirk, and, with another bend, thence to Norham 

 and its proud castle, to Homeliff and to Paxton, where the cur- 

 rent begins to lag and sicken from the mixture of a less pure 

 water which the sea forces upon it reluctant with every tide. The 

 places the Tweed has passed in its serpentine tract are all of them 

 places of note in border history, and worthy each to furnish a 



* In the language of the district, the Tweed, Till and the Glen are rivers ; 

 the Whiteadder, Blackadder, Ae Leader and the Eye are waters; the 

 streams that drain and gladden our denes are bums ; and the leaders to 

 these bums are, in some places, called sykes. 



t This, a good authority assures us, is the most beautiful part of the 

 Tweed. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder in Tait's Magazine, Oct. 1847, p- 658. 

 See also Pennant's Tour, 1772, ii. p. 270. 



J " As you approach the place of Mackerston, the immediate bed of the 

 stream becomes much diversified by rocks, both on its side and in its chan- 

 nel. This, perhaps, is the only stretch of the river that would, in any way, 

 recall those wild and iron-bound streams, with which those who have lived 

 in the north may have become famiUar. The river hurries very rapidly 

 along, confined between walls of rock ; and in some places its current may 

 be said to be fiirious."— Tait's Magazine, Oct. 1847, P- 659. 



