Close to my side, with what delight For Fate shall thrust you from the shore, But, well I hope, without a sigh, Together, on the brown hill's bent. When, musing on companions gone, We doubly feel ourselves alone, Something, my friend, we yet may gain, There is a pleasure in this pain: There is, on a high mountainous ridge above the farm of Ashestiel, a fosse called Wallace's Trench 1 This beautiful sheet of water forms the reservoir from which the Yarrow takes its source. It is connected with a smaller lake, called the Loch of the Lowes, and surrounded by mountains. In the winter, it is still frequented by flights of wild swans; hence my friend Mr. Wordsworth's lines: "The swan on sweet St. Mary's lake Floats double, swan and shadow." Near the lower extremity of the lake, are the ruins of Dryhope tower, the birth-place of Mary Scott, daughter of Philip Scott of Dryhope, and Thou know'st it well,-nor fen, nor sedge, Marks where the water meets the land. And aids the feeling of the hour : Nor thicket, dell, nor copse you spy, Where living thing conceal'd might lie; Nor point, retiring hides a dell, Where swain, or woodman lone, might dwell; There's nothing left to fancy's guess, You see that all is loneliness: And silence aids-though the steep hills. Send to the lake a thousand rills; famous by the traditional name of the Flower of Yarrow. She was married to Walter Scott of Harden, no less renowned for his depredations, than his bride for her beauty. Her romantic appellation was, in latter days, with equal justice, conferred on Miss Mary Lilias Scott, the last of the elder branch of the Harden family. The author well remembers the talent and spirit of the latter Flower of Yarrow, though age had then injured the charms which procured her the name. The words usually sung to the air of "Tweedside," beginning, "What beauties does Flora disclose," were composed in her honour. In summer tide, so soft they weep, Your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude, 1 The chapel of St. Mary of the Lowes (de lacubus) was situated on the eastern side of the lake, to which it gives name. It was injured by the clan of Scott, in a feud with the Cranstouns; but continued to be a place of worship during the seventeenth century. The vestiges of the building can now scarcely be traced; but the burial ground is still used as a cemetery. A funeral, in a spot so very retired, has an uncommonly striking effect. The vestiges of the chaplain's house are yet visible. Being in a high situation, it commanded a full view of the lake, with the opposite mountain of Bourhope, belonging, with the lake itself, to Lord Napier. On the left hand is the tower of Dryhope, mentioned in a preceding note. And, dying, bids his bones be laid, If age had tamed the passions' strife, Here have I thought, 't were sweet to dwell, 'T were sweet to mark the setting day, And, as it faint and feeble died To say, On the broad lake, and mountain's side, And may at last my weary age Il Penseroso. |