Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 14
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 14
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
If ye never heard o' it (answered he), it is worth your while going to
see it. Ye may become acquainted wi' it without paying a fee to a
writer. Dunse Law, sir, is a bonny round hill, which rises behind the
honest town o' that name. Ye have a magnificent view upon the top o' it.
In my opinion, it is equal to the view from the Calton at Edinburgh; and
some o' my scholars that have been travellers inform me that the view
from the Calton is every way equal to the far-famed view in the Bay o'
Naples. Ye have the whole Merse lying beneath your feet, like a
beautifully-laid-out and glorious garden--the garden o' some mighty
conqueror, that had converted a province into a pleasure-ground, and
walled it round wi' mountains. There ye behold the Blackadder wimpling
along; the Whitadder curling round below you, and as far as ye can
see--now glittering in a haugh, or buried among woody braes. Before ye,
also, ye behold the Cheviots and the Northumberland hills, wi' a broad
country, the very sister o' the Merse, lying below them, and which runs
to Tweedside, where they stand and look at each other! Down the middle
distance runs the Tweed, shining out here and there, like an illuminated
lake, and receiving the Border rivers o' both countries into its bosom,
just as a hen gathers its young under its wings. To the right hand,
also, ye behold Roxburghshire, wi' the dimness o' distance, like a thin
veil thrown owre its beauty, and its hills a' before ye. Ye see also the
smoke arising from towns, villages, and hamlets, and hovering owre them
in the midway air, like almost transparent clouds. Gentlemen's seats,
and the plantations around them, lie scattered owre the scene;
farmhouses that lairds might live in, and stackyards that no other
country could produce. On each elbow ye have the purple Lammermuir,
where a hundred hirsels graze; and to the east, the mighty ocean, wi'
the ships sailing upon it, where, wi' their white sails spread to the
sun, they look from the distance just like sea-birds poising themselves
on their out-stretched wings owre the deep. Ye see also the islands that
rise wondrously from its bosom--fragments which the great waters have
stolen from the dry land, or the dry land from the waters. But I ought
to have mentioned that, before ye, also, ye see the ruins o' castles,
some o' them still majestic, which changed masters a hundred times, as
victory chanced to decide for the English bow or the Scottish spear, and
which yet bear manifestations o' having been places o' strength and
terror. All these things, sir, and mony mair, do ye see from Dunse
Law--for I have described it very imperfectly; but I hope I have said
aneugh to convince ye that it is no everyday view. And now, I shall
endeavour to explain to ye the meaning o' the saying, that the bishops
were expelled from Scotland by _Dunse Law_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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