of the unsightly and unsavoury "Castle" at the east end of the town, and the acquisition and renovation of the Town Hall, which, strangely enough, had hitherto been virtually the property of the Duke of Roxburghe. The first of these was carried out in a most satisfactory manner at almost no cost to the town; the other is far advanced towards completion, and might have been concluded ere now but fo: entirely uncontrollable circumstances. Beyond the scope of strictly municipal affairs, Mr Smith, by utilising various unconsidered trifles of public money which might otherwise have been lost sight of, maintained an effective organisation for the relief of deserving poor

of his fellow townsmen. To say that his entire public policy and conduct was accepted without question would be to claim for him a degree of perfection absolutely without parallel. No one ever did much good public work or displayed much strength of character, who pleased everybody or who had not to admit some error or miscalculation. If complete harmony in public life may be accepted as a token of weakness on the one side or lethargy on the other, it may be regarded as an indication of a healthy condition of things in Kelso that while the relations between representatives and represented were characterised by a conspicuous degree of mutual respect and confid

when adverse seasons rendered such assistance

desirable and acceptable. It was chiefly due to his advocacy that Kelso's contribution for the sufferers by the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank reached the handsome figure of £1700, one of the largest in proportion to population among all the towns of Scotland; and that in conjunction with one or two neighbouring parishes its contribution to the Eyemouth Disaster Fund reached something like £700.

In the discharge of all his public functions Mr Smith maintained the honour and dignity of Kelso, as he jealously guarded the interests

ence, they were not altogether free from friction, and that the actual cause of Mr Smith's somewhat premature relinquishment of office was a serious difference in regard to a vital question of municipal policy. It is not necessary to discuss that question here. Parties are still acutely divided regarding it. But it may be stated briefly that Mr Smith and a large majority of those who were his colleagues as Burgh Commissioners two years ago, were of opinion that in the interests of the health and welfare of the town a better supply of water than that now available was urgently required. After all the available sources of

supply had been examined, the Board decided in favour of a scheme for bringing a supply from the Heatherhope Burn, a stream which drains a portion of the Cheviots and falls into the Kale about thirteen miles from the town. The cost was estimated at about £13,000. The Duke of Roxburghe, anxious alike to help the town and to share in the benefits of the proposed new supply, offered a donation of £1000 in addition to what would be required of him as a ratepayer and a consumer. The opposition to the project proved more powerful than had been anticipated. In the elections of 1897 and 1898, its supporters were decisively defeated, with the result that the scheme was

all through he acted with the most entire disinterestedness, and with the best interests of the community in view.

It was under these circumstances that the movement to bestow upon the Provost ("once a Provost aye a Provost,") some suitable token of the town's appreciation of his past services, apart altogether from considerations attaching to the questions which had led to the rupture of a long, pleasant, and honourable connection. With a gratifying approach to unanimity such as could scarcely have been anticipated, the townspeople heartily and generously supported the proposal, and the movement was brought to a very happy issue on

dropped, and the Duke of Roxburghe's offer declined. In these circumstances Provost Smith and the remnant of the Heather hope party relinquished their offices, as Ministers of the Crown sometimes do, without meeting the House, the new majority being allowed to fill the vacancies thus created.

There may be differences of opinion regarding the water scheme, and also in regard to the manner in which Mr Smith severed his connection with the public life of the town; but he still believes that in both cases he did what was right; and it is readily acknowledged that

the 11th of July last, when Mr and Mrs Smith were made the recipients of gifts in recognition of public duties faithfully discharged, and of continued good wishes. The present to Mr Smith consisted of a massive silver bowl of classic design, and an equally handsome silver tray, both suitably inscribed and embellished with the coat of arms appearing on the Burgh Seal. The presentation to the Provost was fittingly made by Mr P. Stormonth Darling, a gentleman whose family has long been intimately associated with the public life of the district, whose father was Chief Magistrate of

the town for nearly twenty years, and who was a fellow student with Mr Smith at the Old Grammar School of Kelso, under the late Dr John Ferguson. The gift to Mrs Smith, the Provost's amiable and loving helpmeet, was handed over to her by Mr T. D. Crichton Smith. It consisted of a gold bracelet set with diamonds and sapphires.

A Ramble in Liddesdale.

URS was but a small company, numbering only three, but all possessed of a little knowledge of botany and a keen appreciation of the grandeur of Scotland's hills and Scotland's dales, and especially those of our Borderland.

า

In fulfilment of a long-standing engagement to visit Liddesdale and explore some of its heights and haughs, and rugged glens, we left Hawick with an early train on a beautiful morning in the beginning of July. The mists, which weather prophets say denote heat, were gradually dissolving away into thin air and leaving the trees and fields bathed in a rich freshness which is seen only at this time of the year. Alighting from the train at Shankend, our first task was to climb to the top of Riccarton Hill; this early scramble up over the grassy slopes was well calculated to put us on our mettle for the day's work. On the top of this hill is a well marked Roman camp, and here we get our first glimpse of Fann Hill, Gritmore, and Penchryst Pen. A quiet stillness seems to reign, no sound is heard save the plaintive wail of the golden plover and the weird, wild cry of the whaup. Descending over the south-western. slopes of Riccarton Hill we find ourselves among the peat hags, and can there trace the well preserved roots and branches of birch trees, once, no doubt, growing in abundance, where now not a tree can be seen for miles round. Here we cross the cat rail, easily discernible in some parts, not so in others. Nothing startling in the botanical line has yet arrested our attention, only here and there in the lower ground we come across patches of the Drosera or Sundew, the plant so fatal to insect life; here also grows in plenty the vernal sedge, a plant considered by flockmasters very valuable on account of its affording food for hill sheep in the early spring. next make our way up over the scarred sides of Leap Steel, from the summit of which we can distinctly trace the watershed marking the boundary between Teviotdale and Liddesdale, and looking west through the valley we

We

see a landscape of unique pastoral beauty, once the home of lawless mosstroopers.

"On Penchryst glows a bale of fire,

And three are kindling on Priesthaugh swire."
"Ye need not send to Liddesdale,

For when they see the blazing bale
Elliots and Armstrongs never fail."

Continuing in a westward direction, we skirt the Sundhope burn, and pay a short visit to Sundhope Linns, famous for great boulder stones and abounding with ferns, none of them, however, rare. To the east of this tributary of the Hermitage, however, we come upon a little alpine plant called Wintergreen, which is not by any means common even amongst the hills. Resting a little at Whitropefoot we again make a start, and over some very rough moorland make our way for Hermitage Castle, meanwhile recalling from our historical readings the vicissitudes and the revelries of this ancient pile. Near to the Castle we refresh ourselves with a drink from a rich mineral spring of which many such are to be found in this part of the country. Leaving the Castle, Hermitage Hill and Dinley Hill on our right, we direct our course southward for the Nine Stain Rig, where Lord Soulis met his tragic end, then leaving the ridge, and when halfway down the south side we come in view of Roughley Glen, which we feel it will be our duty to explore, but be fore reaching it some very rough country wil have to be crossed. Nothing daunted, though a little fatigued, we struggle on through treacherous bogs, over boulders and other obstacle until we enter the dark recesses of this little known glen. The red-stemmed Lady Fern hangs gracefully over the banks of the little stream which winds its chequered way to join the Liddel water, and looking through the mass of overhanging foliage we can at times catch a glimpse of the purple bells of the foxglove and the golden tint of the rock rose. We here find the Polystachian Augulare, a fern not commonly met with growing wild. But as time will wait on no one, so we must leave this enchanted spot and make our way as best we can up over a very high and slippery bank, at the top of which we call a, halt before attempting to wriggle through a perfect sea of brackens in gaining the summit of the Roughley Hill, and this completes our climbing. From the hill-top, we take a bee line for Riccarton Junction, which we reach in good time for the north-going train, thus bringing to a close a most enjoyable day's outing.

Т.

a lively interest in every movement for ameliorating the condition of the labouring classes, and it was at his instigation that the Farm Servants' Association was formed with a view to the abolition of the bondage system. Of this associa tion he became the guiding spirit, and was elected its secretary; and when it succeeded in 1866, not indeed in getting permanently rid of the obnoxious system, yet in gaining important modifications of it in their favour, the members presented their secretary with a handsome gold albert chain in recognition of his services.

1888); and "A Curious 'Find' in the Church of Ladykirk" (29th August, 1892.)

Mr. Watson was an Associate Member of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, and contributed to its proceedings, amongst other communications, a paper on the "Restoration of Jedburgh Abbey," 1882, Vol. X., p. 127; and a report of the meeting at Jedburgh in 1885, Vol. XI., pp. 10 and 23. In Church connection he was

a member of the Church of Scotland, and in politics he was a Liberal Unionist. He took

She had her Jock the Kecken," her "Daft Andrew," her "Robbie Dun," and a good many others. In order to rescue from oblivion the memory of some specimens of this now all but extinct type, Mr Watson, about 1870, promoted the publication of a pamphlet of sixty pages entitled "Jethart Worthies: Sketches of Character" (Thomas Smail, Jedburgh). The admirable sketch of "Willie Wilson, the Poet," that stands at the head of the list, was from the pen of Mr Watson, and shows more clearly perhaps than anything else that he wrote, his shrewdness of observation, his kindly and sympathetic nature, and the rich potentialities to the end but half revealed -of his genius. Had he devoted himself to the writing of Tales of Scottish life and manners he might have been a formidable rival to the author of the "Annals of the Parish."

son

In our last paper we left Mr Wat

eagerly collecting materials for રી new and enlarged edition of his "Jedburgh Abbey." By 1892 he had exhausted every source of information accessible to him. He had pried into every nook and corner where a crumb or morsel of fact might perchance be lurking, and had added to our sum of knowledge many particulars that his predecessors had passed over unnoted or unnoticed. He had wrestled with the many vexatious questions that emerge to him who seeks from the ruinous and imperfect present to reconstruct the long-vanished past, and had spoken his last word upon them. He had portrayed the vicissitudes of the monastery through the heyday of its medieval splendour; through succeeding years of war, havoc, spoliation, conflagration, and destruction; on through times of peaceful desolation and decrepitude, when the old faith was still set forth in a small church erected within the ruined walls; through the Presbyterian regime, with its interlude of prelatic usurpation; on to our own day when all that remains of the grand Davidic structure of the twelfth century received its in the meantime final, and no doubt necessary disfiguration by the introduction of a complexity of retaining wooden beams. He had reached the goal of his ambition. He had written the History of Jedburgh Abbey.

on

on

The second edition of the History-substantially a new work-was published in 1894 (E linburgh: David Douglas,) in a handsome quarto volume, with fifteen beautiful illustrations which, while they illuminate the text, also artistically preserve some of the finest views of the Abbey from 1775 to the present day.

We all know enough of our own hearts and

of human nature in general to find any difficulty in believing that Mr Watson, the whilom callant that used to "ca' the shuttle" in the weaving-shops in Queen Street, must have felt a thrill of pleasure when he saw his dream of thirty years ago thus realised. And we have just as little difficulty in believing that he found the sweetest reward of his long and painful labours in the humble consciousness that he had done something that would perpetuate his memory and redound to the credit of his native Jethart; and in the gratifying communications that came to him from persons of undoubted taste and learning, well able to justly appreciate the value of his work. Thus the Marquis of Lothian, to whom the second, 'ike the first edition, was by permission dedicated, was pleased to write as follows:-"The copy of your book, 'Jedburgh Abbey,' &c., which you have been so kind as to send me, has just reached me. It forms a very handsome volume, and both in appearance and type, it is quite excellent. I must congratulate you on having brought to so satisfactory a conclusion. your complete and able account of the history and architecture of this beautiful ruin." And the learned and reverend Canon Greenwell of the Cathedral, Durham, wrote:-"Your verv excellent and well-illustrated account of Jedburgh Abbey came this morning. I am very much obliged to you for it. I have not had time to do more than glance through it.

But

I have seen quite enough to show me how far it is in advance of books which pretend to give a history and do no more than express in poor language the carelessly gathered and ill-digested so-called facts, which are mere speculations. often clothed in very poor and pretentious words. On the contrary you have given facts, and used the lesson they teach with judgment and sobriety. I feel certain that the very favourable opinion I have formed will be justified on a fuller acquaintance."

These opinions are no less just than they are laudatory. The work in question, judged abstractedly on its bare merits, is indeed complete and able," and "very excellent"; and yet if it be regarded from another and an equally reasonable standpoint from the point of view of the untoward conditions, already alluded to, under which it was produced, among others the daily importunities of ordinary business, inconvenient distance from the great repositories of books, and the consequent fortuitous, hand-to-mouth opportunities of research, it acquires a still further significance. Viewed in this light it stands out as a very remarkable work, and one which may be