The Story of the Tweed
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THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE STORY OF THE TWEED THE STORY OF THE TWEED BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. ILLUSTRATED LONDON JAMES NISBET AND COMPANY, LIMITED 22, BERNERS STREET, W. 1909 THE STORY OF THE TWEED IS DEDICATED TO ANDREW LANG THAN WHOM NONE IS MORE ABLE TO DISCERN ITS FLAWS NONE MORE CERTAIN TO JUDGE THEM GENTLY 868667 INTRODUCTION aim of the following chapters is to THEindicate some of the sources of interest which enrich the valley of the Tweed. In quoting from the ballads, in which this valley is more prolific than any other in the United Kingdom, the common and most familiar versions have been taken. From the year 1802, when Scott published the first volume of his 'Border Minstrelsy^ down to the close of last century, when Mr. F. J. Child finished his monumental series upon English and Scottish ballads, this literature has never lacked diligent students and critics. Probably all that can be written usefully on the subject is within the reach of those who care to exa- mine it critically. As for history, the writer is human, and even in the slight sketch here offered some passages must be affected by his prepossession and prejudice, while other passages reflect what seemed to him the likeliest of two or more conflicting versions. The intention of the INTRODUCTION book is to provide what might be learned from the conversation of an intelligent native by one making a leisurely progress through the scenes described. I am informed that Queen Mary's House in Jedburgh has lost the venerable appearance it presented when last I saw it many years ago. A slated roof has replaced the historic thatch, to the distress of the antiquary, but, let us hope, to the greater comfort of the inhabitants. The quotations from Mr. James Brown's poems in chapter iii. are made by kind permis- sion of his son and of Messrs. William Black- wood and Sons that from Mr. in ; Lang's poem chapter ii. by leave of Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co., and the verses by the same author in chapter iv. by leave of Messrs Longmans, Green, and Co. HERBERT MAXWELL. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. From Tweed's well to Drummelzier ... i II. From Biggarfoot to Ettrick Water. ... 24 III. Ettrick and Yarrow 44 IV. Abbotsford, Melrose, and Eildon .... 75 V. From Lauderdale to Dryburgh 104 VI. From Mertoun to Kelso 127 VII. Teviotdale and Borthwick Water .... 146 VIII. From Slitrig to Jed Water 171 IX. Jedburgh 211 X. From Kalemouth to Coldstream . 241 XL Norham Castle and Whitadder 270 XII. Berwick-on-Tweed 294 XIII. Tweedside Angling 335 Envoi 360 Index 363 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Abbotsford Frontispiece St. Mary's Loch To face page 44 Newark Castle 74 Eildon Hills IO2 Kelso Abbey. 128 Branksome Tower 170 Jedburgh Abbey 240 Norham Castle 292 CHAPTER I FROM TWEED'S WELL TO DRUMMELZIER greater part of the written history of every THEcountry consists of a narrative of its wars, and warfare most readily gravitates into the valleys of those rivers which serve as frontiers between na- tions. Hence rivalis, the dweller on a rivus or river- bank, came to be synonymous with an enemy, and ' ' has given us our word rival one who will not yield to that fellow on the opposite bank. During the long warfare between England and Scotland, which endured for three centuries, broken only by brief periods of precarious truce, the Tweed was recognised as the main boundary between the two realms ; the manhood and intellect of each nation were strained alternately in attacking and defending that line, and the valley of the Tweed became the chosen ground for feats of arms, the natural arena for chivalrous enterprise, the district above all others where, if men would live, they must keep their wits keen and their weapons handy. Practically during three hundred years one generation followed another on both sides of that river born, living, dying in presence of an ever-watchful foe. Whence it has come to pass that there have gathered over Tweed and her tributaries such wealth of story, such mist of tradition, such glamour of ballad and song, as 2 THE STORY OF invest no other river in Great Britain. Both nations have contributed their share, so there need be no jealousy between them in awarding the palm to that fair stream which laves English soil on the right and Scottish on the left. So powerfully has the imagination been moved so profoundly the interest stirred by the lore of Tweedside, that some persons, visiting the valley for the first time, find the reality fall far short of their expectation. For the theatre of such intense and varied human action and emotion they had conceived a landscape of no ordinary kind. This is especially the case in these days of barbed-wire fences, tele- and motor-cars but graph-poles, railway whistles, ; it was much the same before any of these unlovely products of civilisation had been dreamt of. Eighty years ago, when Washington Irving visited Walter Scott at Abbotsford, and his host took him to the top of the Delectable Mountains to feast his eyes upon Lammermuir, Torwoodlee, Ettrick Forest, and Tev- iotdale, the American man of letters, nursed among the stupendous forests and broad-bosomed rivers of the New World, received but a chill impression. ' ' * I gazed about me, he wrote, for a time with mute surprise, I may almost say with disappointment. I beheld a mere succession of grey, waving hills, line beyond line, as far as my eye could reach, monotonous in their aspect, and so destitute of trees that one could almost see a stout fly their outline and the far-famed walking along ; Tweed a tree appeared a naked stream, between bare hills, without or thicket on its banks. And yet such had been the magic web of poetry and romance thrown over the whole, that it had a greater charm for me than the richest scenery I had * ever beheld in England. THE TWEED 3 At that time the land was bare enough. The days had been when these uplands of Tweed and Yarrow formed part of the great Caledonian Forest. The old woodland had been swept away, and Scott himself was one of the pioneers in replanting. At the present time the lower valley of the Tweed is rich in fine timber and broad woodlands. Much planting also has been done in Tweeddale proper and Teviotdale, although the effect of rectangular areas of immature wood upon the hillsides led Professor Veitch to sigh for the former bareness. * The heights of the district did not then show as if they had been curiously patched in needy places by bits of cloth different from their original garment, and they were free from shapes of wood that now look like arms minus bodies, again like bodies minus arms, now like a tadpole, and then like a soup-ladle. The people of last century were spared appearances of this sort, and instead of these they had simply ' ' hills, roads, and waters. Washington Irving had the priceless privilege of being presented to these scenes by one who has done more than any other to interpret their history and to codify (if such a harsh expression may be suffered) their romance. Readers, less fortunate, but tolerant, perhaps will suffer the leading of a humbler guide, equal only in one respect to the Wizard of the North his unalterable love for the land and its people. Whether the Tweed be an English river or a ' ' Scottish water, or whether each nation has an equal claim to the glory of possessing it, must be decided upon the following considerations. Taking the whole course of the river along its windings from 1 History and Poetry of the Scottish Border, by Professor Veitch, i. 18. 4 THE STORY OF source to sea at about ninety-seven miles, both sides of the channel are Scottish soil for eighty miles. From near Birgham downwards for fifteen miles the left bank is Scottish, the right bank English. For the last two miles below Paxton in its course to the sea the river is English on both banks, dividing Berwick-on-Tweed from Northumberland. Thus a Scot may surely insist that birthplace and parentage are the true tests of nationality, and claim inalienable inheritance of the Tweed in virtue of its origin in the extreme south-west corner of Peebles- shire or Tweeddale, which was the ancient and better name for that country. And if a native of Peebles be not good Scots, then must ethnology be deemed but an idle fraud. To which the Englishman retorts that if the Tweed is born Scots it dies English. As Scotsmen from immemorial times have travelled south and become naturalised Englishmen, so the Tweed cannot live in its native land, and desert it for good and all. Let the verdict be Honours easy ! and let both nations enjoy their share of glory in this fair stream. It would be sheer waste oftime to discuss the various interpretations which have been given to the name Tweed. Etymologists have become shy of assertion in these latter days, and are agreed to write off a large proportion of river names as of unknown origin. All that can be said with safety is that Tweed seems to be an abbreviated form of a name bestowed upon many rivers by the Brythonic or Cymric branch of the Celts, and may be compared with Taff, Teifi, Towy, Tavy, and Dovey in Wales, Tawe and Tavy in Devon, Tay and Teith in Scot- land.