531 
■were sown and watered. The well, at which in days of yore 
strangers came and drank, still yields its small supply of water. 
Both link themselves with the past, when Kay wrote : — “ They 
make strangers that come to visit it burgesses of the Basse, by 
giving them to drink of the water of the well, which springs 
near the top of the rock, and a flower out of the garden thereby” 
(‘Itineraries’ p. 155). And this is all until the climber finds the 
apex of his steep ascent in the cairn-crowned summit, and views 
the scene around him. To the north, coal-ships and coasters ply 
to and from Leith, — to the south is distant St. Abb’s Head, to 
the east the German Ocean, to the west Kortli Berwick Law, and 
old Tantallon castle, from whose grated portal bold Marmion 
spurred his steed, as the portcullis descended at grim Douglas’ 
word. 
4t The ponderous gate behind him rung : 
To pass there was such scanty room. 
The bars, descending, razed his plume.” 
According to the lowest, and at the same time most reliable 
estimate, the Bass is 313 feet high. It is a species of clinkstone 
trap. It is the property of Sir Hew Dalrymple, and is now let for 
the comparatively small sum of £20 a year* to Mr. Kendall, of 
Canty Bay, who keeps the key, and supplies boats at a reasonable 
charge. He takes perhaps 1000 young Solan Geese in a year, 
which he dispatches to Sheffield and many other towns. He has 
live or six women in the season at work plucking, at Is. Gd. a day 
each. The feathers are good for making beds. Some of the geese 
are cooked before they are sent off, and I was shown an oven in 
which four at a time could be done. The eggs are also thought 
palatable by some persons, and I hear a large order comes annually 
from an hotel in the London Haymarket. But there are other 
sources of profit besides the gannets. Babbits are plentiful, and I 
am sorry for it, as they undermine the ruins, and interfere with the 
puffins, besides which they are accused of eating up the sea-beat 
which in Kay’s time grew in plenty (‘Itineraries,’ p. 156). Tho 
guano-grown grass affords capital pasturage for a score or so of sheep. 
Bass mutton has a great name in Scotch markets, though certain 
* This is doubtless exclusive of the pasturage, which is estimated at 
seven acre*. 
