The ground in which St. Catherine’s is situated agrees in certain general circumstances with the author’s Vale of Gandercleugh. The horrific “_dry-stane dike_” projected by “his honour the Laird of Gusedub,” does not, it is true, appear to have ever substituted its rectilinear deformity for the graceful winding of the natural boundary, as the too-poetical Peter Pattieson apprehended. But a circumstance has taken place by which the romantic has been sacrificed to the useful as completely as if “his honour” had fulfilled his intention. The ravine, at the head of which St. Catherine’s is situated, has lately been embanked, and laid completely under water, as a compensation-pond for the mills upon the Crawley Burn, of which the more legitimate supplies were cut off, and turned towards a different direction and very different purpose, by being carried to Edinburgh for the use of the inhabitants. Besides being _possibly_ the original scene of the Deserted Burying-Ground, this spot is not otherwise destitute of the qualification of _classic_. At no great distance stands Logan House, the supposed mansion of _Sir William Worthy_ of the “Gentle Shepherd”; and at the head of the glen lies what has generally been considered the “_Habbie’s How_” of that drama. In the leading article of the _Scotsman_, September 3, 1823, the writer endeavours to trace a similarity between the Vale of Glencorse and the description of Glendearg in the Monastery. VALE OF GANDERCLEUGH. The Vale of Gandercleugh may perhaps have been suggested by Lesmahagow, a village and parish in the west country, not far from Drumclog. In the churchyard are interred several of the Covenanters,—in particular, David Steel, who was slain by Captain Crichton, the cavalier whose life was written by Swift—in a note to which Sir Walter Scott mentions Old Mortality as having for a long time preserved Steel’s grave-stone from decay. HISTORY OF THE PERIOD.[22] * * * * *