time of Alexander II.; it served till the Reformation as a special harbour for the imports and exports of the Border monks; and it was notable, during the last century and the early years of the present, for the smuggling of foreign spirits, wines, and silks. It has a post office under Ayton, two banking offices, and three inns-the Royal, the Ship, and the Cross Keys. Its population in 1851 was 1488.

29. EYEMOUTH stands at the mouth | It was known as a port so early as the of Eye Water, and is reached from Ayton by a road down the left side of the stream. Netherbyres, in its neighbourhood, on the right bank of Eye Water, is an interesting mansion, built by the late Captain Sir Samuel Brown, R.N., and approached by a tension bridge 150 feet in span. The coast adjacent, and for miles north and south, is high and rocky, exhibits curiously the junctions of different formations, from the lower greywacke to the carboniferous limestone, together with masses of trap, and possesses historical interest in the science of geology for having guided Hutton to the development of his igneous theory. A good natural harbour, semicircular and beautiful, lies embayed between headlands at the town. The headland on the north side commands a noble view over sea and land, and is crowned by vestiges of a regular fort. The fort was first constructed in 1547, by the Duke of Somerset, during his invasion of Scotland; it was soon demolished, in terms of a treaty; constructed again by the French general D'Oysel for Mary of Lorraine, and demolished a second time in terms of a treaty; and it was finally rebuilt by Oliver Cromwell, and then allowed to go to ruin. Eyemouth itself is a confused, ill-contrived town, with narrow streets and blind alleys; yet contains many good houses.

30. COLDINGHAM stands in a vale, amid pleasant environs, about a mile from the nearest part of the coast. It has a post office under Ayton, an inn, and about 1000 inhabitants. A priory founded at it in 1098, by King Edgar, was one of the wealthiest establishments in Scotland, and made a great figure in the Border history. Its buildings were blown up by Cromwell, and afterwards extensively used as a quarry. Fragments of its church form the north wall and east gable of the present Parish Church, and are beautiful specimens of the transition from the Norman style to the early pointed.

31. ST. ABB'S HEAD is a peninsulated mural promontory, rising nearly 300 feet from the sea, and divided from the mainland by a deep trench. Its summit surface has an extent of about 5 acres. Its rock is trap; but the rocks adjacent to it are stratified ones, exhibiting re

FAST CASTLE-BILLY CASTLE.

11

markable contortions, and pierced with | Home; and it passed by marriage, about

many large caves. Its name is derived from Ebba, the Christian daughter of Ethelred, king of Northumbria. Tradition says that this lady, about the beginning of the 7th century, founded upon it a religious retreat, to protect herself from the addresses of the Pagan king of Mercia, and to spend her life in devotion. The retreat became a nunnery, and was laid waste in the 9th century by the Danes. No traces of it now exist.

the year 1580, into the possession of the famous Logan of Restalrig. Logan wrote in it some of the letters relative to the Gowrie Conspiracy, and made a contract respecting it with Napier of Merchiston. It corresponds, in some respects, to the "Wolf's Crag" of Sir Walter Scott's "Bride of Lammermoor." Only two tall fragments of the castle now remain. Redheugh, about midway thence to Cockburnspath, contains some curious rock scenery, a winding footpath down a precipitous sea-bank, and an interesting stalactitic cave. Pease Dean is crossed, by the old road, 2 miles west of Redheugh. See 9.

33. COVE is a little bay engirt by cliffs upwards of 100 feet high, and containing a pretty little harbour for fish

32. FAST CASTLE stands on a precipitous, maritime, peninsulated rock, commanding an extensive and brilliant view. The rock is 70 feet high, has a top surface of about 120 feet by 60, and was formerly separated from the mainland by a deep chasm about 24 feet wide. The castle originally consisted of tower and encompassing walls, and was access-ing boats. The rock scenery around it ible only by a drawbridge across the chasm. It was used in the 14th century as a Government strength; it fell in 1333 and in 1410 into the possession of the English; it became, in the 15th century, the property of the powerful family of

and seaward is strikingly picturesque, and takes the visitor by surprise. Cellars and a tunnel have been cut in the encircling cliffs; and the tunnel, about 180 feet in length, affords the only access at high water.

warfare as a place of great strength; and | the same size as Allanton, stands 3 miles

it was taken and demolished in 1544 by the Earl of Hertford. A dangerous morass, called Billy Mire, surrounded it, extending from the neighbourhood of the Eye to the neighbourhood of the Whitadder. This morass gave name to an international truce in 1386, and was the scene of the murder of De la Beauté by the Wedderburns in 1517. It could scarcely be passed in the old times except by a causeway, which is said to have been first made by the Romans, and which was usually broken up at a period 37. WHITADDER WATER rises of war; but it is now drained and cul- among the central Lammermoors, and tivated, and is crossed by the railway. has a curving course south-eastward, A large cairn and a cromlech, of Cale- about 35 miles in length, to the Tweed, donian origin, stood on a spot of dry 2 miles above Berwick. It makes a ground within the limits of the morass; total descent of about 1100 feet, and is and the latter, called the Pechstane, may well distributed in runs, without leaps or be seen between the Draedan and the rapids, and generally brisk and clear. Bunkle Burns. The village of Auchin- About one-half of its course is among the craw, with a post office under Ayton, and Lammermoors; and the rest traverses a about 250 inhabitants, stands a mile north rich region of the Merse, generally along of Billy Castle. a deep bed, with bold and wooded banks, between tracts of plain, adorned with the highest culture, and much diversified with rising grounds, parks, and mansions. The Whitadder is one of the best trouting streams in the south of Scotland. Its trout are at once delicate, well-sized, and very plenteous. The reaches of it among the Lammermoors, and several of its tributaries there, are specially famous among anglers; and even some of its reaches in the Merse, notwithstanding obstructions, preserves, and excessive fishings, have no little fame. Yet even the lowest reach, in spite of its nearness to the sea, is rarely visited by salmon. •·

further down the river. Hutton Hall, in its neighbourhood, is a curious old edifice, of different parts and dates, embodying a very ancient peel tower, and now uninhabited. It was the seat of one of the "Seven Spears of Wedderburn,” mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel." Edrom, on the same side of the Whitadder, about 23 miles west-south-west of Chirnside, is a very ancient place, but has never been more than a church hamlet.

36. CHIRNSIDE is a small town about a mile east of the Chirnside Railway Station. It consists chiefly of two streets, nearly in the form of the letter T, on the ascent of a rounded, broad-based hill, which declines gradually to the Whitadder. The hill commands a gorgeous prospect over all the Merse to the Eildon Hills and the Cheviots. The town has a post office under Ayton, two pretty good inns, and an ancient parish church, with a still more ancient Saxon door. Its population is about 1100. The estate of Ninewells, the birth-place of David Hume, and his occasional residence after he became known as an author, lies adjacent to Chirnside, on the left bank of the Whitadder. The present mansion is a recent edifice, in the Tudor style, erected by the late Miss Hume, and now the seat of M. N. M'Donald Hume, Esq. The village of Allanton, with a small inn and about 300 inhabitants, stands on the opposite bank of the Whitadder, 13 mile south of Chirnside. The village of Hutton, about

38. DUNSE is situated on a plain at the south side of a hill called Dunse Law. The hill has a base of between 2 and 3 miles in circuit, rises gradually on all sides to an elevation of 630 feet above the level of the sea, and terminates in a tableau of about 30 acres. The original town stood on its summit, and took from it the name of Dun or Duns, which is the Celtic name for a hill; but it was

GAVINTON-GREENLAW.

13

stood half a mile to the north of it, and survived many a shock from the Border wars, but was erased in 1760 by the pro

burnt in the 16th century by the English, and allowed afterwards to become extinct. The present town began to be built about the year 1588, and was ori-prietor, to be superseded by Gavinton. ginally defended on three sides by a deep morass. Dunse Law continued to be a position of strength, somewhat resembling the Acropolis of ancient Athens or Corinth. General Leslie, afterwards Earl of Leven, twice encamped upon it with a large army of Covenanters; the first time dictating terms to Charles I. at Berwick; the second time opening his way to Yorkshire, where he obtained a favourable treaty. The vestiges of his intrenched camp on the hill are still pointed out.

This is a neat village, on a regular plan, and has a post office under Dunse, and about 240 inhabitants. Polwarth, 2 miles south-west of Gavinton, is a small, modernized, ancient church village. The well-known song of "Polwarth on the Green" alludes to a custom which prevailed for upwards of three centuries, of bridal parties dancing round two old thorn-trees which stood in the centre of the village green. The custom fell into disuse about the beginning of the present century, and the thorn-trees have perished. The church stands on the edge of a pleasant glade within the park of Marchmont, the

Patrick Hume, an ancient statesman and patriot in the persecuting times of the Stuarts, lay concealed six weeks in a vault beneath the church, stealthily attended by his daughter, Lady Grizel Baillie, till at length, by her contrivance, he was enabled to escape to Holland; and after the Revolution he returned to Scotland, and was advanced to the dignities of Lord Polwarth and Earl of Marchmont. The peerage fell dormant at the death of the third earl, in 1794; but the title of Baron Polwarth was adjudged in 1835 to Scott of Harden.

Dunse is a post and market town, and shares with Greenlaw the county business of Berwickshire. Its appearance is mod-seat of Sir H. H. Campbell, Bart. Sir ern; its streets cleanly and spacious; its market-place a pleasant square; its environs studded with villas or adorned with culture. Its Town Hall is an elegant modern Gothic edifice, with a very tasteful steeple. Dunse Castle, in its north-western neighbourhood, the seat of W. Hay, Esq., is a splendid modern Gothic structure, adjoined to an ancient tower, which is said to have been built by Randolph, Earl of Moray. Wedderburn Castle (the Misses Swinton) and Manderston House (Richard Miller, Esq.), in the neighbourhood in other directions, are also fine mansions. The town has four banking offices, two excellent inns, a subscription library, and a subscription reading-rcom. It boasts as distinguished natives, John Duns Scotus, the "angelic doctor" of the middle ages; Thomas Boston, the author of works in theology; Dr. M'Crie, the biographer of Knox; Dr. Robertson, the Oxford professor of astronomy; and Sir Joseph Paxton, the architect of the Crystal Palace. Its population in 1851 was 2567.

39. GAVINTON, 1 mile south-west of Dunse, stands on the estate of Langton, a property of the Marquis of Breadalbane. An ancient town of Langton

40. GREENLAW stands on the left bank of Blackadder Water. It never was more than a village; yet since 1696, either alone or with Dunse, it has been the county town of Berwickshire. It consists entirely of one long street, with a square market-place on one side, but contains an elegant modern Grecian county hall, and has a post office under Dunse, an office of the City of Glasgow Bank, and two good inns, the Castle and the Crown Its population in 185] was 842. Blackadder Water, for 2 or 3 miles below it, is open to all anglers, but in most other parts is carefully preserved. The stream has a total run of about 20 miles, to the Whit

14

DIRLETON-TANTALLAN CASTLE.

adder at Allanton. It abounds in alter- | frequent sieges from the English, and

nations of calm pool and rapid current; and its trout are few, large, coy, and delicate. Home Castle, 3 miles south of Greenlaw, crowns an eminence 898 feet high, and figures like a beacon-mark over all the Merse. It was for ages the chief seat of the family of Hume, and a place of great military strength. It sustained

passed thrice into their possession; and it always gave its masters strong power over great part of the Merse. It went to neglect and ruin after the invention of gunpowder; and a kind of restoration of it was made in the latter part of last century, but only in a rough manner, and simply with a view to picturesque effect.

41. DIRLETON is a beautiful village, | of Robert II., but is dry at low water, arranged along the sides of a large triangular green. It has a post office under Drem, and about 450 inhabitants. Two sides of its green are occupied by pretty cottages and garden plots; the third by the stately ruin of Dirleton Castle, overgrown with ivy, and adjoined by a fine garden and a bowling-green. The castle was built in the 12th century, by the family of Vaux; it resisted Edward I. of England, at a time when he had become master of all the eastern border; it passed into the possession of the Halliburtons, who were raised to the peerage under the title of Lords Dirleton; and in 1650 it resisted Cromwell, but was captured and dismantled. The title of Baron Dirleton now belongs to the Earl of Mar. The village of Gulane, on the coast, 23 miles west-south-west of Dirleton, contains the ruins of an ancient church, is noted for the training of racehorses on an adjacent expanse of fine downs, and has a post office under Drem, and about 280 inhabitants.

and has little facility or shelter. The adjacent beach suits well for bathing, and the environs are beautiful. Traces of an ancient parish church, called Auld Kirk, famous in the annals of witchcraft, occur in the vicinity of the harbour; ruins of a Cistercian nunnery, founded in 1154, stand about a quarter of a mile to the west; and the fine conical hill of North Berwick Law, 940 feet high, skirted with wood, traced with a zigzag walk to the summit, and figuring conspicuously in all the views eastward of Edinburgh, rises immediately to the south. The town consists chiefly of two streets nearly at right angles to each other, and presents a pleasant appearance. It has a post office under Drem, an office of the British Linen Company's Bank, a subscription library, and a hotel called the Dalrymple Arms. It unites with Haddington and three other burghs in sending a member to Parliament. Its population in 1851 was 863. North Berwick House, the seat of Sir Hew Dalrymple, Bart., is situated 24 miles to the east-southeast.

42. NORTH BERWICK ranks as a sea-port and a royal burgh; but is practically a sea-bathing village. Its harbour 43. TANTALLAN CASTLE stands on appears in history so early as the time a lofty precipitous rock, three-fourths