Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS AND OF SCOTLAND. HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE. WITH A GLOSSARY. REVISED BY ALEXANDER LEIGHTON ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS. VOL. VIII. LONDON: WALTER SCOTT, 14 PATERNOSTER SQUARE AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. 1885. CONTENTS. THE DOOM OF SOULIS, _(JOHN MACKAY WILSON)_ HARDEN'S REVENGE, _(ALEXANDER LEIGHTON)_ THE PHYSIOGNOMIST'S TALE, _(OLIVER RICHARDSON)_ THE GOOD MAN OF DRYFIELD, _(ALEXANDER CAMPBELL)_ THE SURGEON'S TALES, _(ALEXANDER LEIGHTON)_ THE CHERRY-STONE THE HENWIFE THE ARTIST THE BRIDE, _(JOHN MACKAY WILSON)_ THE HENPECKED MAN, _(JOHN MACKAY WILSON)_ MORTLAKE.--A LEGEND OF MERTON, _(JAMES MAIDMENT)_ THE SERJEANT'S TALES, _(JOHN HOWELL)_ THE BEGGAR'S CAMP LEEIN JAMIE MURDIESTON, _(ALEXANDER CAMPBELL)_ DUNCAN M'ARTHUR, _(ALEXANDER CAMPBELL)_ WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS, AND OF SCOTLAND. THE DOOM OF SOULIS. "They roll'd him up in a sheet of lead-- A sheet of lead for a funeral pall; They plunged him in the caldron red, And melted him--lead, and bones, and all."--LEYDEN. A Gazetteer would inform you that Denholm is a village beautifully situated near the banks of the Teviot, about midway between Jedburgh and Hawick, and in the Parish of Cavers; and perhaps, if of modern date, it would add, it has the honour of being the birth-place of Dr. Leyden. However, it was somewhat early on a summer morning, a few years ago, that a young man, a stranger, with a fishing-rod in his hand, and a creel fastened to his shoulders, entered the village. He stood in the midst of it, and, turning round--"This, then," said he, "is the birth-place of Leyden--the son of genius--the martyr of study--the friend of Scott!" Few of the villagers were astir; and at the first he met--who carried a spade over his shoulder, and appeared to be a ditcher--he inquired if he could show him the house in which the bard and scholar was born. "Ou, ay, sir," said the man, "I wat I can; I'll show ye that instantly, and proud to show you it, too." "That is good," thought the stranger; "the prophet is dead, but he yet speaketh--he hath honour in his own country." The ditcher conducted him across the green, and past the end of a house, which was described as being the school-house, and was newly built, and led him towards a humble building, the height of which was but a single storey, and which was found occupied by a millwright as a workshop. Yet, again, the stranger rejoiced to find that the occupier venerated his premises for the poet's sake, and that he honoured the genius of him who was born in their precincts.