The record-union., 1891-07-11
WAKEMAN'S WANDERINGS.
Ancient Border Towns of England
and Scotland.
Musings and Observation In a Half
Dozen or More Interesting Places
Historic and Descriptive - What
American Travellers Often Miss.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1S91.l

Especial Correspondence OF the tlECORD-
UNION. Copyright, 1911
KELso, Scotland, June %, 1891.
American travellers Fastening between
the English and Scottish capitals miss
what have often felt is the most inter
esting portion of the two countries. That
is the Border country with its ancient
border towns, in and around which have
been fought more ferocious contests than
elsewhere in all England and Scotland.
These old border towns have been bat
little modernized. The railway stations
are about all the structures in them that
have large windows or smell of paint.
They remain chiefly as they stood when
the border raids We're ended. They are
gray, battle-scarred, ancient. They We're
built in fighting times, and have their
records in their hard old faces. TO wan
der among them is like being whisked
back four or five centuries and set down
face to face with the grimness and hard
ness of feudal times. Scotland is richest
in these weird old relics. The Scotch
crowded close to the Border, built huge
places Of sally, and then, being liveliest on
their legs, "harried' the English in such
q brisk and occupying way that they mad
little time on their hands, after chasing
the raiders home, for building border
towns.
on the English side, in the two great
border shires Of Cumberland and North
cumberland, there are but two border
cities of note, OF ancient origin, Newcastle
and Carlisle unless the little early-day
castle towns Of Penrith and keswick, the
latter in the English lake district, may be
included. But in the three adjoining
Scottish shires of Berwick, RoXburgh and
Dumfries, there are Berwick and Cold
stream, kelso, Jedburgh, Melrose, La
wick, Langholm, Ecclefechan, Amman and
Dumtrics. 1t would, indeed, be carrying
Goals to Newcastle to attempt discovering
much of interest in that border city be-
yond matters connected with manufact-
ureS and coal. At KesWick one is SO preoc-
eupied with the noble scenery of Derwent
Vale, dominated by huge Skiddaw, and
by the memories recalled by the lines of
Southey and Coleridge, that its ancient
character and traditions fade into insig-
niticance. Little and quaint old Penrith
is a place no tourist ever finds, yet it is
certainly one of the oldest hives of hui
mans in England. Here are the remains
of once huge border castle built by the
Sevilles. That is all the canny Scots
could see when they sailed over the bor-
der, but they knew that at its base, in a
little hollow, stood the grotesque town, its
streets the narrowest. most winding and
may in England, and that its wise old
burghers had much of value hid in their
tiny strongholds of houses. 1t is at Pen
rith-Sacked scores of times i'll the Eng
lish and Scottish wars, and for several
brief periods the residence of that merry
murderer, King Richard III.-that you
Will find one OF England's most curious
rude stone monuments. It stands III the
little churchyard, and is known as the
Giants Grave, There are two huge stone
pillars, one each at the head and foot
far. TNTrsN rYs.s 10, -
twelve feet at the base to seven at the
top. Folklore of the region affirms that
they were erected ages gone by to per-
petuate the memory OF legendary giant
called owen Caesarius. They are covered
with Runic carvings. British antiquari-
ans long since gave them up as dead age
secret, and Sir Walter Scott nearly went
mad puzzling his poor knobby head over
them.
But I saw the people of Penrith in
more veXed puzzle than this the other
day. y portable engine and threshing
machine Of American pattern were being
hauled down hill through its single thor
oughfare, which sharply winds to the
right and left to accommodate the entire
place. 1t was too narrow in places to al
low their passage. Presently the two
pieces of machinery were wedged fast be-
tween the opposite houses. An eXtraor-
binary cOmmOtOn followed, as all the
town-folk on either side seemed at once
furious TO pass to the other, and this sim
Hous street was the only means, without
making a circuit of half the place, Every
thing from dynamite to a Queens war
rant and the giant shade of owen Caesa-
riuS, was suggested TO relieve the city
When l left it mobs were struggling on
either side of the barrier, nlassed into a
writing cone against and upon the ma
chinery, while a stentorian burgher
waved his arms and shouted to the null
titude: "Ees cooms o. Hame1can inwen-
tions! They puts willinj hands in TIA,
workus, am howdashusly stoaps oop our
streets. Down WI em', say Oir' And
Down WI em'H' sang they all as they
struggled TO "Oop WI em'. an await
Perhaps they are at it yet in Penrith
town.
Ancient Carlisle. portion of whose
castle was built over l 200 years ago, is a
fine example of the once almost impreg-
nable border town. 1T stands at the edge
of the foothills of the north English
mountains, on one of their farthest out
outings, and hill, town and castle have a
Typographical look of pugnaciousness as
the whole faces the misty Scottish mount
aims. Between the city and the border
stretches q vast fertile plain, once a fen
over which Scottish raiders slowly
waded, and their delay always gave the
Carlisle warriors time TO get into good
fighting trim. Indeed the stronghold
'bridle and render insecure the posses
sion OF the Scottish Kings in the two
northern counties" Poor Mary Queen
of Scots was shut up here sometime after
her landing in England. The east win
dow of the Carlisle Cathedral is probably
the largest III Britain, while within the
same area can nowhere be found so great
q number Of ancient castles of residence
and defense. Among these / visited
Rose, Corby and Naworth Castles the
latter the seat of the Earl of Carlisle. and
1 have not come upon such tremendous
battlemented walls elsewhere in Europe
Even in Carlisle itself it is not unconl-
mon TO find ancient houses with walls
from four to six feet in thickness, and
splayed windows and bartizan towers of
feudal times are so quaint and frequent as
to form one of the most curious and
interesting studies among the border
towns.
over the Scottish border, where the
Tweed, as II leaves region of glorious
tradition and is lost in the tides of the
German Ocean, stands Berwick, looming
darkly in a high antiquity. No man can
tell its origin, or trace its early history
1t comes first authentically into view in
the early part of the twelfth century. 1t
was then a town of mark-the capital of
Lothian, and it figured for some time as
great seaport, as place of rich churches,
monasteries and hospitals, and as one of
the first four royal burghs of Scotland
The Scandinavlans made descents upon
IT. but il was built for such visits and
they did little harm. The English ac-
quired n claim upon it in the time of
William the Lion, stormed il during the
reign of Alexander H., and inthralIed it
during the dispute for the succession of
the crown. IT thenceforth became an OBJ
iect of continued jealousy between the
English and the Scotch, being valuable