A pair of magnificent stag's horns surmount the door-way. The hall, filled with curiosities, chiefly antique and warlike, is 40 feet in length; its walls, tastefully decorated with old armour disposed as trophies, being pannelled with the rich oak carvings of the Dunfermline Palace. The compartments between the arches of the roof are filled with the armorial bearings of the House of Scott and its collateral branches; and around the cornice a double line of escutcheons displays the heraldic bearings of the Scotts, Kerrs, Elliots, Douglasses, and other Border Clans-with the archaic inscription

"These be the coat armories of the clanns, and chief men of name

Wha kepit the marches of Scotland in the auld time for the King. Trewe men war they in their time and in their defence, God them defendyt."

Amongst the more remarkable weapons and other objects in the hall (the floor of which, by the way, is a mosaic of black and white marble from the Hebrides), a large sword found on Bosworth field, a Roman camp kettle, and a huge war horn from Hermitage Castle, are worthy of notice. The horn may be identified with the legend of the treasure, guarded by dragons and other frightful shapes, which instinctively impelled the adventurer to unsheath his defensive weapon, when voices were heard proclaiming

"Woe to the coward that ever was born,

Who drew the sword ere he sounded the horn."

The hall leads to a narrow arched room or passage across the house, with a window of painted glass at either end, filled with weapons and armour of great interest and value; this is the armoury, containing Rob Roy's gun, the initials "R. M. C." round the touchhole; Montrose's sword (the gift of Charles I.); Grahame of Claverhouse's pistol; those found in Napoleon's carriage after Waterloo; Hofer's blunderbuss; James Sixth's hunting-flask; old matchlocks; Ro

man spear-heads; thumbkins, and other instruments of torture; the iron mask worn by Wishart the Martyr at the stake, to prevent his addressing the people. The drawing-room, fitted up with cedar wood, and antique ebony furniture of beautiful workmanship, presented by George IV., contains some beautiful carved cabinets and chairs, a portrait of Sir Walter Scott, and Sir Peter Lely's portrait of John Dryden. The library, which is the largest apartment in the house, is 60 feet by 50. Its carved oaken roof is after models from Roslin and Melrose. The collection amounts to 20,000 volumes, the more rare and valuable of which are placed in carved oaken cases. William Allan's painting of Sir Water Scott's eldest son as an officer of the 18th Hussars, surmounts the fireplace. This room also contains Chantrey's bust of Scott; and the Stratford bust of Shakspere; the silver urn presented to Sir Walter by Lord Byron, whence the accompanying letter has been abstracted; elbow chairs, the gift of the Pope; and an ebony writing-desk presented by George III.

Sir

The study, a small-sized room, with a plain writingtable and leathern arm-chair, adjoins the library. It contains a few pictures, cabinets, old claymores and shields; and a small gallery of tracery runs round three of its sides. Locked within a glass case, and placed upon a table, the body-clothes, drab trousers, striped vest, blue coat, and white hat, worn by Sir Walter previous to his death; his Yeomanry and Celtic costumes, walking-stick, and forest accoutrements, are exhibited in a small closet attached to the study-and almost recal the bodily presence of the man amidst the scenes which he alone could animate. The present proprietor of Abbotsford, J. C. Hope Scott, Esq., has fitted up the study as an oratory.

The dining-room is entered from the armoury, on the

side opposite to the drawing-room. Its black oak roof is richly carved; its furniture Gothic. Here are placed the chief pictures of the Abbotsford Collection-including Amias Camrood's painting of the Head of Queen Mary in a charger, the day after her execution; full-length portraits of Essex, Oliver Cromwell, Claverhouse, Charles II., and many family portraits; amongst which, that of Sir Walter Scott's ancestor, "Beardie," is generally singled out by visitors, from the whimsical mode he took of signifying his sympathy for the broken fortunes of the Stuarts, by suffering his beard to grow neglected. In this apartment, which commands, from its large projecting window, a free view of the lawn and shrubberies, washed by the Tweed, Sir Walter Scott expired, after his return from Italy, 21st September 1832. A small breakfast parlour, overlooking both the Tweed and the Hills of Ettrick and Yarrow, adjoins the dining-room, containing some old cabinets, a small selection of works of poetry and fiction, and the water-colour drawings of Turner, Thomson of Duddingstone, &c., made for the Provincial Antiquities of Scotland." Thomson's "Fast Castle," an oil-painting, surmounts the chimney-piece.

From Melrose, where it is only to be supposed the tourist may feel induced to spend some time in the survey of objects of interest, an excursion may be made up the Leader Water to Earlston, four miles distant-the Leader falling into the Tweed two miles below Melrose, at Drygrange (J. Tod, Esq.), and the tourist crossing the Tweed at Drygrange Bridge. Drygrange was of old the chief granary of Melrose Abbey; but the monks possessed another in the village of Eildon, on the opposite bank of the river. Cowdenknowes, a mile above Drygrange, is still distinguished by a hill clothed in its well-sung "Broom :"O the broom, the bonny bonny broom,

The broom o' the Cowdenknows.

Earlston, anciently Ercildoun, the residence of Thomas the Rhymer, is situated at the base of the Black Hill, a mile farther up the Leader, and here we enter Berwickshire. A small part of his dwelling of Learmont Tower is still remaining. The front wall of Earlston Church is inscribed

"Auld Rhymer's race lies in this place."

Manufactories of gingham, introduced by the Misses Whale, still exist at Earlston. Six miles farther up the Leader, past Carolside and Chapel (——— Fairholm, Esq.), is the ancient burgh of Lauder, in the church of which Archibald Earl of Angus proposed to "Bell the Cat," and where the confederated nobles hanged Cochran, the upstart favourite of James III., over Lauder Bridge.

EXCURSION III.

MELROSE TO JEDBURGH, HAWICK, AND DRYBURGH ABBEY.

MILES.

Newton Junction (St Boswell's), 3 | Hassendean,

New Belses,.

8 Hawick,

MILES.

113

152

FROM Melrose the line continues along the course of the Tweed, passing close on the south of the secluded village of Newstead, a place which seems to have arisen under the shadow of Redstead Abbey, a large and splendid religious house like Melrose, the foundations of which have not yet totally disappeared, and where a variety of Roman spears and coins, some of which are yet preserved at Abbotsford, indicate that the Romans had been prior occupants of the spot. Here the line, coming into close proximity with the base of the Eildons, affords a grand view of these hills,

C

on the one hand; the Black Hill, with Earlston at its base, on the other; and the vale of Leader and Ravenswood in the foreground of the picture. The beautiful village of Old Melrose (the site of an old religious house, said to have been of the Culdees from Iona, 635) is also observed in the distance, standing on a flat peninsula formed on a sudden bend of the Tweed. The etymology of the word Melrose is here solved, having nothing to do with the fanciful emblems of a "mell" and a 66 rose;" but signifying a "bare peninsula," or Maol Ros, just as the appellation of Ros was anciently bestowed on the whole peninsula of Fife. Mr Fairholme of Chapel has converted this bare peninsula into delightful pleasure-grounds, environing his mansion. On the summit of a bold high bank, rising above the stream, is Col. Spottiswoode's mansion of Gledswood. At

NEWTON, ST BOSWELL'S STATION,

the branches for Hawick and Kelso diverge. Near it are the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which are subsequently described, and tourists wishing to visit them will find it most convenient from this place. The town of St Boswell's is chiefly noted for its annual fair on St Boswell's Green on the 18th of July, being the principal market for sheep and lambs in the south of Scotland. To the west of St Boswell's are situated the villages of Bowden and Halidean— the latter having vestiges of the old hereditary seat of the Kerrs (the ducal family of Roxburghe), and near it the remains of an old chapel cemetery. From Newton the line proceeds to Minto without meeting with any thing of striking interest, crossing the water Ale, near Greenend farmhouse, and reaching New Belses Station, where coaches, running in connection with the trains, meanwhile complete the communication to and from