The Earl of Buchan spoken of above had a weakness for setting up monuments, and in indulging it he showed more public spirit than good taste. Close by his suspension bridge he built "an Ionic temple" of red sandstone, with a statue of Apollo under the dome, and a bust of Thomson perched on the top. As time went on, the statue was so much damaged (it may be hoped that something higher than a spirit of destructiveness was the motive of the image-breaking) that it had to be removed, though the bust still holds its place. A furlong or two up the stream, on a thickly timbered eminence, facing the Border, he put up a colossal statue of Wallace, hewn out of the same incongruous material, but painted white, though the paint has long since vanished. Wallace suffered many things during his life, but it was not a Sassenach who did this. Between Dryburgh and Melrose the Tweed is swollen by Leader's "silver tide" from the Lammermoors. On the banks of this water St. Cuthbert tended his flocks in the days of his youth; while at Earlston--formerly Ercildoune--two miles above the confluence, lived Thomas the Rhymer, whose surname appears to have been Lermont or Learmount, and who is believed to have lived in a castle of which a tower is still shown. There is no doubt that Thomas had a real existence; but whether he posed as a prophet, and had commerce with the fairies, and was finally spirited away by a hart and hind that were seen calmly parading the village, is more questionable. The poet, however, is clear enough about it all. With much detail he tells how, when the message came to the Rhymer to follow the deer, he "soon his cloaths did on," and-- "First he woxe pale and then woxe red, Never a word he spake but three: 'My sand is run; my thread is spun; This sign regardeth me.'" Then, having bidden farewell to the Leader, he crossed the flood and was seen no more of men. [Illustration: ABBOTSFORD.]