332 MELROSE STAGE-COACHES-HARVEST.

banks, rising to an elevation of 200 or 300 feet, often perpendicular, sometimes sloping and shady, with frequent turns, and endless variety; the mountainash hanging in profusion from all the rocks. Our path was mostly over the level bed of rock forming the channel of the river, at present partly dry;— sometimes we ascended among groves of oak and ash, half way up the accessible parts of the bank. We were shown at Frankfield, meadows, the rent of which is L. 10 or L. 11 an acre, (five-fourths of an English acre);-these meadows have not been ploughed for these forty years. The use of lime keeps them in perfect order, and free from moss. On our return, near the foot of the Pentland Hills, we saw a sort of palace, begun by the person who was the cause of the disgrace of Lord Melville.

Sept. 15.-Melrose, 34 miles. We set out from Edinburgh this morning, with the same fine weather which we have had constantly since we left the Highlands. Salisbury Crag towered above the town in blue haze. The country we passed is full of gentlemen's houses, and noblemen's castles, embosomed in groves of fine old trees, over verdant lawns; the hills covered with extensive plantations of firs and larches,—cottages vastly improved, and women likewise, yet much fewer handsome than in Lancashire and Wales. The reapers are hard at work everywhere, with their sickles, an instrument vastly inferior to the cradle-scythe used in America, and of which the figure and description are annexed. We observed forty-five reapers in one field.

MELROSE CRADLE-SCYTHE.

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B

1 --A, B. Pivot of wood, about 30 inches long, inserted at the extremity of the handle of the scythe, and turning upon itself in A. and B.

2.-D, E. Another pivot. Both pivots secured by the brace B, C.

3.-1, 2. 3, 4, are the teeth of a sort of rake, of the same length, and parallel to the blade of the scythe.

4.-5, 6, 7, 8, Braces, moving on the axle G, F. and sliding through the pivot D, E. so as to alter the inclination of the teeth of the rake. Wedges fix these braces in their position in the pivot D, E.

The whole apparatus does not add more than three pounds to the weight of an ordinary scythe.

934

MELROSE ABBEY-PATTERDALE.

There are no stage-coaches in the Highlands. We now meet them on the roads, and the absurdity of their construction strikes us anew. There are

twelve or fifteen persons on the top, besides baggage, and accidents are frequent. These carriages, and the heavy waggons with conical wheels, ought not to be found in a country where the science and practice of mechanics are so well understood.

We arrived here just in time to see the ruins of Melrose Abbey before night, and resumed again by moonlight. It was not quite the solemn hour of midnight, but the clock, (for there is still a clock), struck ten as we entered, the screech-owl answer. ing with a sigh,-a sort of long murmur from among the ruins, the strong light through the tracerywork of the windows, and deep shadows on all the rest, had a very grand effect.

Sept. 16.We went a third time, early this morning, to the Abbey. Nothing can exceed the exquisite finish of the carving, the patient labour, and indeed the taste of many parts;-some of the leaves are raised from the stone, so as to run a straw or blade of grass behind, and all perfectly sharp, and in high preservation, after a lapse of 600 years. Part of the church was walled up, and covered with a roof to perform service in, fifty years ago; but the present generation is grown more picturesque. All this modern work is going to be pulled down, and the old abbey, re-ruined, will look like itself. Our cicerone, the sexton I believe, was a little alarmed at the sight of the portfolio, and preparations to draw, it being Sunday. He was told that it was not working, but merely for pleasure still worse! Yet the idea of the beauties of his church being transmitted to the new world, at last outweighed his scruples. He seemed after

ULSWATER-TREES.

335

wards to take great pleasure in the performance, and even refused to receive the proffered acknowledgement, either to show that he did not work on Sunday, or in consideration of the picture we had made of his favourite. We traversed again today the singular district of pasture country between Hawick and Langholm, already described.

Sept. 17-Patterdale on Ulswater. This lake has already been described. Entering this time from the east, it presented itself in all its glory; the wonderful back-ground of mountains round its head in front of us for fifteen or twenty miles. We have been here the whole day sauntering along the banks, or in a little boat rowing from rock to rock, island and promontories. I subjoin here a view of the lake, and another of the venerable ruins of an enormous yew tree in the churchyard of Patterdale. The trunk perfectly hollow, is twentysix feet in circumference; the head is gone, and the lowest boughs only remain, much curtailed in their length, which must have been very great. We inquired of an old inhabitant, what the tradition was about this tree,-how old it was; he answered very seriously, 2000 years! The age of a tree is. difficult to be ascertained, for it does not attract sufficient attention to become the object of tradition till it has attained a very great size, and when a great part of its life is spent. Mr Gilpin has collected, in his remarks on forest scenery, some curious facts on the age and size of extraordinary trees, principally oaks. He traces the age of some of these trees as far as 900 years back. Some oaks are now in existence, which were hollow and declining in the days of Queen Elizabeth. One of the colleges at Oxford was built by express orders of its founder, William de Wainfleet, 450 years

336

PATTERDALE ON ULSWATER-TREES.

ago, near the great oak. This great oak, a mere shell, fell of itself in 1788, and, as it may be supposed to have attained its meridian at the time of the foundation of the college, it gives the tree nine centuries. I shall mention one more: The tree in the New Forest, against which the arrow glanced which killed William Rufus, 700 years ago, was still in existence, marked by tradition, but a few years since, and must have been a well-grown tree at the period of the accident. It is, perhaps, worthy of remark, that all these venerable plants which have attained such an advanced age, are equally noted for their size, far exceeding that of their fellows; while among animals, I mean among individuals of the same species, it is almost the reverse. Gilpin mentions a yew tree at Fortingal, near Taymouth in Scotland, fifty-six feet and a half in circumference. Our Patterdale yew is a mere twig to this; and the good people of its neighbourhood must give it full 8000 years, measuring more than four times the solid contents of the other. The family of the yews is almost extinct in England. They used to be planted by the Britons of old, who were great archers, to make bows, the wood being remarkably elastic and tough; but, in these degenerate days, nobody thinks of planting them any more.

Sept. 19.-Windermere. We have scaled the ramparts of the mountains between Ulswater and Windermere, and admired again the wild magnificence of the pass, steeper and higher, perhaps, than any we have seen in Scotland. We shall rest here with our friends during the remainder of the fine autumnal weather, making only occasional excursions among the lakes and mountains, of which this is the centre.

There are no retired places in England, no place.