HAWICK AND 8T. ANDItEWR
obelisk has been erected to tho memory
of tho poet lie lived, also, at South,
dean (pronounced Sodden) and could
easily reach the banks of the Tweed and
Teviot, and tho ruins of Jedburgh, Dry.
burgh and Melrose in his rambles, or
could have done so, hail not indolence
and self-indulgence been his besetting
sins. Every one has heard of tho lady
who said she "had discovcicd three
things concerning the author of 'The
Seasons' that ho was a great lover, a
great swimmer, and rigidly abstinent,"
at all of which, Savage, who had lived
much with him, laughed heartily, saying
that he believed Thompson never was in
cold water in his life, and that tho other
particulars were just as true. Tho an
ccdote of Quin, regarding Thompson's
splendid description of sunrise, has been
equally wide-spread. He, with Savt(
asserted that ho believed Thorn won
never saw tho sun riso in his life, and
related that, going ono day to see him
at Richmond, ho found him in bed at
noon, and asking why ho did not get up
earlier, was answered, listlessly, "he
had nao motive."
It has been recorded that tho manse
in which tho poet was turn, at Eduan,
has disappeared, and a new, squaro and
nnpicturesquo one built upon tho site,
"for," adds the writer, "perhaps no
class of people have less of tho poetical
or picturesque in them than the Presby
terian clergy of Scotland Tho hard,
dry, stern Galvanism imparted by John
Knox has effectually expelled all that
The country people of Scotland aro gen
erally intelligent, and have a taste for
poetry and literature, but to a certainty
they do not dcrivo this from their clergy.
In no country have I found the parish
clergy so ignorant of general literature,
or so unacquainted with anything that
is going on in tho world, except the po
lemics in their own church." This Is an
Englishman's opinion of tho present
day, but Scott says of his own country
men: "The Scotch, it is well known,
aro inoro remarkable for the exercise of
their intellectual powers, than for the
keenness of their feelings. They are,
therefore, more moved by logic than by
rhetoric, and more attracted by acute
and argumentative reasoning ou doctrin
al points than inlluencvd by enthusiastic
apeals to tho heart and to the passions,
by which jopular preachers in other
countries win tho favor of their hear,
era," Charles Lamb says "it takes a
mallet and wedge to drive a joke into a
Scotchman's brain," and gives as an in.
stanco that he was in tho habit of speak,
ing of a favorito picture as " my beau,
ty." "And what," said ho to a Caledon
ian present, "do you think of my beau,
ty?" "I canna' say inicklo for your
beauty, Mr. Lamb, but your talent nao
man can gainsay." Any reflection un
Scottish eculiaritiea may le pardoned
in so enthusiastic an admirer of their
national and individual worth as myself.
From Hawick wo went again to Fife
shiro by way of the Frith of Forth, from
Edinboro' and its seajurt, jith, and
our cxjerienco of Cupar led us to
comprehend tho sententious warning of
old Caleb IJaldcrstono to the master of
Ilavcnawood, in all its significance: "Ah,
weel 1 A wilfu' man maun hae his way!
Who will to Cupar, maun to Cupar," nor
in spite of tho same ready obligingness
and spirit of accomrwltion from the
people hero as elaewhere, can I " invent
even a wee figment" upon the aU
tractions of the town. On the Pi fa
line of railway, ten miles to the south,
west of Cupar, is the old Falkland pal-'
ace, historically and architecturally mem.
orablf. A painful interest attache to
its walls from its having been th plaw
of imprisonment of David, duke of Itoth
say, eldest son of Ilolirt 111., king of
Scotland. He suffered here the agonii-t
of death by starvation, awl the tragedy