Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-12

and Eldormen, the Norman Conquerer, Ru-
| fus, the Edwards, Henry VI, and Margaret
| of Anjou; followed by Warwick, Surrey,
Somerset, Norfolk, Russell, Dacres, Boiling
broke and northumberland; with Queen
Mary, England's first James, Charles l. and
IL, relentless Cromwell, grim John Knox.
and the dauntless Scottish Kings, David,
Gregory, Donald, Alexander and iron
hearted Bruce; all and countless more are
wrought into the brilliant perspective Of its
history, and spring into wraithful being
with every football upon Its grim old streets.
Taking ones way along the Scottish bor-
der to the southwest, every hill, haugh, brae
burn or acre of ground has its glorious or
bloody memory. Some portion of the
Cheviots, Lammermoors, Eildons or Kylo
Hills are ever in sight. Wherever one
turns, it seems that there must be heard
through the screech of the pibroch,
March! marchl Ettrick and Teviotdale,
why, my lads, d1nna ye march forward IN
March, marchl Eskdale and Liddesdale.
All the blue bonnets are over the border!
Here at Coldstream you can look over
upon Flodden Field, where James ~.
brought his army and himself to slaughter.
They passed its ford, as have scores of Scot
tlsh and English armies before and since. 1t
was Monks headquarters before he marched
to London to restore Charles IL, and it was
in this lovely old town upon the Tweed in
which he raised the regiment, existing to
this day, and known the world over as the
famous Coldstream Guards. A wonderful
old priory for Cistercian nuns once existed
there, but all that is left is tons of human
bones, for the Scottish heroes of Flodden
were borne back here for burial The dream
full old place once enjoyed nearly as high
repute as Gretna Green for the celerity
with which Scottish marriages" were per-
formed by the priests" of Hymen, all the
runaway couples of Northwestern England
securing safety and contamination here, the
ford of the Tweed once being crossed.
Unviolated by the Tourist.
A little further on is ancient Kelso, where
the Teviot stream forms a confluence with
the Tweed. What tourist ever came here?
Yet it is one of the quaintest and most beau
tiful places in Britain. Built around
huge market square, its fine old structures,
shady wynds and closes, give you an almost
exact reproduction of the oldest burghs of
Holland. Its abbey ruins, of which few
outside of its own shire know, or ever
looked upon, are among the finest to be
found in Europe. The abbey was built
early in the twelfth century, and received
its confirmation from Pope Innocent II. A
few miles to the south is Yetholm, cradled
in the Cheviots, and headquarters of the
Scottish Gipsies. 1t was in Kelso that the
boy, Walter Scott, afterward Sir Walter,
passed his first school years a. public school,
which had been fitted up within the old
abbey walls, and formed the acquaintance of
the brothers, Ballentyne, the printers of the
Kelso Mail, who afterward became the
great novelist's publishers 1t is but three
miles, for I have tramped it, from Kelso to
the former home of Thomson, author of
1.-The Seasons" And over there on that
emerald haugh opposite the city, where the
Teviot and Tweed unite, once stood the
royal castle of Roxburgh, perhaps the first
of Scotland stupendous border castles, now
the site of famous annual border fair.
A little further to the westward are the
Sylvan JEDI of Thomson and its lovely
vale, and the old shire town of Roxburgh-
shire, waspish, uncompromising but beauti-
full Jedburgh. No tourists ever come to it,
but here is known antiquity of over 1000
years; and an abbey nearly 800 years old,
wonderfully interesting in the mixed char
acter of its arches and interlaced arcade;
the schoolboy home of Thomson; and the
place in whose ancient castle, celebrated in
song and story, the spectral mask appeared
at the marriage festivities of Alexander III.
A Series of Romantic Spots.
And thus, all the way through this bor-
derland of cloud. kissed hills and misty val
leys of the Irish Sea, book thrilling with
legend, romance and sad and glorious his
tory could be made upon every city, town
or slumberous clachan and hamlet. Here
at Langholm, at the meeting of waters of