umbrians is conveyed when spoken in all its native purity. Most of the shepherds speak Scoth, some of the words of which are pronounced precisely the same as some words of German, and have the same meaning; for instance, a shepherd one day said to a friend of mine, "the maiden is no blaet," (shy). In German it runs thus, "Das madehen is nicht blode." The French language is also traceable in the Northumbrian dialect; for instance, "Don't fashe (vex) me"-facher. "That is a fine grozer (gooseberry-bush)"-grosseille. "Pezz" is to weigh up; in French peser. These and many other French words are supposed to have been introduced in consequence of the number of French persons who accompanied Queen Mary to Scotland. Amongst the provincial expressions, the Northumbrian peasants say, shearing corn and clipping sheep.

Offended as the ear may be, the eye is delighted in contemplating the neatness of the peasants' cottages, which are compactly thatched with heath, there called hether, and rendered impervious to the rain, whilst within every part is clean, and on either side of the sprightly fire there is an oven and boiler; the scene of content and comfort reminded me of the consummation of Frederick's (the Great) wish, that he might live to see the time when every one of his poor subjects had a fowl on a Sunday, to put in his pot.

Hesleyside is in the parish of Simonburn, perhaps the most extensive parish in England. The living might be made to produce about 5000l. per annum. I am informed it is in the gift of the trustees of Greenwich Hospital. If my information be correct, it would be wise, upon the death of the present incumbent, to divide it into eight or ten livings, to which chaplains of men of war ought to be exclusively presented.

The peasantry are uncouth in manners, faithful, keen, laborious, and thrifty. There are very few of them who cannot read, write, and cast accounts. The estates in this county are sometimes upon an immense scale, owing to the vast extent of moorland. Walnut-trees and poplars do not flourish in this county. The principal game with which it abounds is the grouse, and the black or grey game (the cock black, and the hen grey). On the borders of Scotland, however, the soil is rich and highly cultivated, so much so, that a farm which till lately let for 80%. was re-let for 3431. per annum, and another was raised from 250l. to 915/. per annum. Much of the county has been greatly improved, within these last twenty-five years, by draining and planting. Near Hesleyside is Billing

ham, a miserable hamlet, filled with petty tradesmen, carriers, smugglers, and poachers. The inhabitants have a wild appearance, and realise considerable sums of money by their lawful as well as lawless traffic.

In a little tour which I made whilst in this part of Northumberland, I passed by part of the celebrated Roman wall, which I had also seen in my way to Hesleyside. We are informed that Agricola first suggested the idea of building this stupendous wall, by erecting, A. D. 79, a row of forts across the island, from Tinmouth, on the German ocean, to the Irish sea, to connect which, the Emperor Hadrian, in A. D. 120, and afterwards Severus, in A. D. 207, raised separate walls along the same tract of country; that Hadrian's Vallum appears to have been a turf wall, with a deep foss or ditch accompanying it on the north side; that there was another, called by Horsley the South Agger, or mound, at the distance of about five paces to the south of it, as also another and larger agger on the north side of the ditch, supposed to have been the military way to this work. These four works, it is observable, keep a constant regular parallelism to one another. Upon this wall, which generally runs upon the top or ridge of the higher ground, both keeping a descent towards the north or enemy's side, certain castles and turrets have been placed. The sounding pipes, said to be made from one end to the other, were doubtless fabulous: much easier and more certain modes of communication could have been made. The wall ran from station to station, till an unfordable frith on one side, and a wide and deep river on the other, rendered its further extension unnecessary. Many antiquities have been and still continue to be frequently found, viz. Roman altars and tomb-stones, with inscriptions.

The foss of Severus's wall, running down a pretty steep descent from Brunton, to the North Tyne, conducts the traveller to the curious remains of a Roman bridge, which has anciently spanned that river at this place. A great many large square stones, with holes in them, wherein iron rivets have been fixed, but which have been eaten away by rust many ages ago, still lie bedded on the spot, and defy the violence of the rapid floods. The Roman bridge stood a little to the south of the present one at Chollerford, over which I passed. I was present at a great scene of Northumbrian festivity at Stagshawbank fair, at which, as at the Dutch fairs before the revolution, the high and the low from distant parts assemble. The principal characters who support the gaiety of the place were, as usual, pro

fessors of salt-box melody, fire-eaters, and keepers of wild beasts.

In my route from Hesleyside to Chapheaton, the seat of Sir John Swinburne, I crossed the Watlin-street, a celebrated Roman road, which runs through Watlin-street in London to Edinburgh. Upon the surface of the adjoining ground, Roman coins are sometimes thrown up by moles. In my way, a very mean house, in a dreary waste, was pointed out to me, in which a singular character, called Simy Dod, for many years resided, and who had lately died after a long life of toil and penury, as a shepherd and grazier, leaving behind him a fortune of about 100,000. At times he used to shear 50,000 of his own sheep. Such is the force of habit, his eldest son, to whom the largest share of this property devolved, having been before brought up as a herdsman, without shoes or stockings, still continues the same pastoral life and attire. Capheaton is the seat and manor of the ancient family of the Swinburnes. It is a charming place, well wooded about the house, having a considerable lake with islands in it. This beautiful piece of water is also rendered extremely gay by a number of little sailing vessels. In the grounds are several fine beech-trees, and about four miles of walks, kept in the highest neatness. The old part of the house was built in 1668, and has upon its front two singular figures, representing Mendicity and Hospitality. I spent a short time with Sir John and Lady Swinburne, whose mind and manners would give attractions to a spot less agreeable than Capheaton. Near this place is a lane, called the Silver Lane, so called from some Roman sacra and coins having been found there.

Upon my return I visited Wallington, the seat of my highly respected friend John Trevelyan, Esq. This noble mansion was the residence of the late Sir Walter Calverly Blackett, Bart. whose memory will be long remembered for every quality which can adorn a leading character in a large and opulent county. The grounds are finely wooded and truly beautiful. The woods have been planted about seventy years. The beech, elm, and oak, are highly thriving; and the larch are considered to be the finest and the largest in the kingdom. The gardens are very spacious and well stocked, and contain a great extent of glass pineries, vineries, &c. and also a numerous collection of herbaceous and other plants. In a piece of water near the house, I saw some beautiful nymphæ albæ and nymphæ luteæ, gracefully grouped with other aquatic plants, growing in great perfection,

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which the refined taste of the owner has led him to cultivate with equal care and judgment. In the house are a fine wholelength portrait of Sir W. C. Blackett, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the colours happily in high preservation; two pictures of the Blackett family, by Sir Peter Lely; a portrait of Mrs. Hudson, sister of Sir John Trevelyan, by Gainsborough; and a portrait by Hoppner, of which it may be most justly remarked, that, had the beauty pourtrayed in the picture been less, it had been in that degree less like its amiable and accomplished original, Mrs. Trevelyan. There is also a very fine collection of curious and valuable china.

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Adjoining to Wallington is the hamlet of Cambo, only worthy of notice on account of its having given birth to the ingenious Mr. Brown, better known by the appellation of Capability Brown. Upon my return to Hesleyside, I saw, in a little hamlet not far from the mansion, a vestige of the miserable condition to which the Border Country between England and Scotland was frequently reduced before the Union, (one of the happiest measures that ever occurred for the benefit of both countries), in a strong ancient square building, called, in the Border times, a peel, into which, upon a signal of an approaching Scottish irruption, the adjoining farmers and their cattle took refuge. The former and their families occupied the upper rooms, and the latter were kept below; and the entrance was secured by a strong door, and a massy bolt of oak. There are several such buildings along the borders, remaining as melancholy memorials of an age of rapine. At Hesleyside a spur is kept as a curiosity, which at that period used to be sent up in the last dish at the table of the chieftain, to denote to his lawless followers that their provisions were exhausted, and that they must scour the Border Country for more.

CHAPTER III.

Debateable land-the Shepherds-ferocity of the Ancient borderers-anecdote of Bernard Gilpin-a royal remark upon a cow-beautiful ride to Jedburgh Doctor Johnson's entrance into Scotland-the Cathedral of Jedburgh Scottish gardeners-the little nofegay girls-the prifonEildon hills-Melrofe-remarks upon its architecture-a lunar mistake the Tweed-a traveller's first impression of Edinburgh.

THE imagination can scarcely picture a more dreary ride than I had from Hesleyside to Burness, a distance of nearly twenty miles, although called, in the random reckoning of the natives, only twelve. Not a tree or a hut was visible. The clouds, which rolled heavily and low, as soon as I ascended this desert began to disburthen themselves with the copiousness of a shower-bath all the rest of the way. High up in these mountains of heath, two melancholy drenched shepherds, wrapped up in their plaids, and their flocks plucking the scanty blade, and shaking off the rain from their fleecy coating, were all of animated nature that I saw, save an attendant game-keeper, who, having been annually accustomed to spread desolation amongst the grouse of these mournful and trackless borders, conducted me through them, by the assistance of remembered marks and points of land, to our first stage, as if we had been

at sea.

Before the Union, this tract of country was called the Debateable Land, as subject by turns to England and Scotland, and was frequently the theatre of many a sanguinary scene. This unhappy state of warfare is well described in Home's Douglass:

"A river here, there an ideal line

"By fancy drawn, divides the sister kingdoms.
"On each side dwells a people, similar

"As twins are to each other, valiant both,

"Both for their valour famous through the world;

"Yet will they not unite their kindred arms,

And, if they must have war, wage distant war; "But with each other fight in cruel conflict."

This country was inhabited by a ferocious banditti, trained to arms, who lived entirely by plunder on both sides the barrier; and what they plundered on one side they exposed to sale on