immediate future to increase the accommodation in the parish church, which began to be uncomfortably crowded. The West Church, which had been built to relieve the pressure and to suit those in its locality, was erected "quoad sacra" in 1873, and immediately thereafter steps were taken towards further extension. The ultimate result was the erection of a handsome new church, now known as St Paul's, and to the accomplishment of this work Dr Gloag gave strenuous service. He contributed generously; he stimulated the liberality of his people; he exhorted all to share, as far as possible, in the cost. The success of the undertaking was creditable to the congregation, and at the same time a tribute to the genuine worth of their minister.

self is the best memorial of his faithful and fruitful ministry.

It is unnecessary to speak at length of the nature and quality of the pulpit gift of Dr Gloag. His numerous theological works have been appraised by the public. His style is clear, incisive, logical. He sifts authorities, and on this account his writings are of great value to the student, who may rely on the careful investigation of the author, the accuracy of his quotations-they were laboriously verified-and the fairness of his judgment. His sermons possessed the same characteristics, and both in the doctrinal and practical aspect, they were well-reasoned and deliberately enforced. His "Exegetical Studies" are the best examples of his pulpit teaching,

The church was opened for divine service in 1881, and when Dr Gloag occupied the pulpit for the first time, his satisfaction was evident as he addressed the worshippers in language so memorable now-"We are not proud of this building; we are grateful to Almighty God who hath put it into our hearts to erect for His worship and glory such a magnificent church." In 1882 he presented a service of silver communion plate, consisting of four cups and two flagons, suitably inscribed, and in 1892 the communion table was his further gift. But it may be said that the church it

while in his Evening Thoughts"-a recent gift to those who had the privilege of his three-fold ministry-one recognises that devotional spirit and earnest appeal which pervaded all his services. But Dr Gloag was known beyond the Church of Scotland as a distinguished scholar and devoted student of theology. Both in this country and furth of it there are many in all the churches who have been inspired by his reverence of Divine truth and his helpful exposition of Holy Scripture. What he said of one of the leaders of a sister church, who passed away in 1882,

yet speaketh; he has left his writings as a legacy to the Church of Christ."

In a large congregation of nearly one thousand communicants, the work of the minister is, no doubt, arduous, but Dr Gloag not only accomplished this, and gave much of his time to theological research, he also took interest in any object which had for its aim the moral or religious welfare of his fellow-townsmen. In the work of the Mechanics' Institute he. gave invaluable assistance; in the Free Library Committee his labour was ungrudgingly

kindly sympathy and affectionate help of his partner in life, and the manse was always a happy home.

Dr Gloag was Baird Lecturer in 1879, and in recognition of his scholarship, as well as of the services he had rendered to the Church of Scotland, he was appointed Moderator of Assembly in 1889. Soon after his retiral from Galashiels he was asked, in 1896, to act as Interim-Professor in the Theological Hall of the University of Aberdeen. His instruction was greatly appreciated by the students, and

as a mark of honour the Senatus bestowed upon him the degree of LL.D.; the University of St Andrews had conferred that of 1.D. in 1867. For the past year or two he had been in feeble health, and he entered into rest in the eighty-third year of his age. He had attained his jubilee as a minister of the Church of Scotland eight years before his death, and occasion was then taken by the Kirk-Session, congregation, and parishioners of Galashiels to give expression to their sentiments of respect and affection in a largely-signed congratulatory address.

In his History of Galashiels," Mr Robert Hall pays graceful tribute to the ministry of Dr Gloag, and written on the tablets of many hearts are abiding memories of "a workman needing not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Talla Re-visited.

A. T. G.

GENTLE breeze from the west is rippling the surface of this great inland loch, winding up Talla valley, from which our future water supply

is to come. Where the breeze does not strike, the hills, dotted with sheep, are there in inverted shadow. A water-hen has dived just now; it is up again and swimming away, while nine wild ducks have fled to the Dumfriesshire side of the loch. A firm, smooth road has taken the place of the service railway along the 23 miles of Talla reservoir; an iron railing, newly painted, runs along at our right hand. On the south side a paling is being set up to keep the sheep from the rather steep incline into the loch, while the long line of high-level water marks is very apparent there. There are 57 feet 8 inches of water in the reservoir just now, some 23 feet yet from its highest level. We open this iron gate, and from curiosity taste our future water supply. Higher up there the. peaty island, of which we have heard so much, lies bleaching on shore, where it will do no further harm. The water to us has no peaty taste, but as we had seen it standing in the measuring house, at the outlet from the reservoir, just now, it had a brownish tinge. But Alnwick Hill has yet to do its best. This concrete bridge, at the top of the reservoir, over Talla stream, is worth inspection. Already stalactites are forming in the arch of the concrete; for this is a concrete bridge, with part of the parapet of stone, and the copestones again of concrete rainted red. What would Christopher North

have thought or said of this in his favourite angling haunt in front of Talla Linns, and near the foot of Gameshope Burn. A tramp and his wife are crawling down the road which crosses the brae-face leading over from Megget into Talla Glen. In a few minutes Mrs Tramp is begging for tea and bread at this shepherd's cottage, which stands along here at Talla Linns. Mr Tramp is smoking contemplatively on the concrete bridge. We were to see them twice again in our wanderings that day: eating at Tweedsmuir, and resting by Tweedside at Kingledoors. Christopher North, in a delightful essay, "Streams," takes us up Talla in the old days, and gives us a picture of half-a-dozen maidens bathing in the pool below Talla Linns. The scene is done delicately, and with conscious and unconscious humour. It is as good as the story which Dr John Brown tacks on to his "Enterkin" about the Bield at Tweedsmuir, which, with the Crook, is, and was, one of the inns on the Mcffat road, between Moffat and Broughton. Campbell, the poet, when a young man, had walked to the Bield, and was snug in bed after his tumbler of toddy, when there was a knock at the door. The poet cried, "Come in." Enter the pretty maiden who had given him his supper, in her short gown and petticoat. "Please, sir, could ye tak' a neebor into yer bed." "With all my heart," said the susceptible poet. "Thank ye, sir, for the Moffat carrier's just come in a' wat, and there's no a single ither place." Exit the dainty little woman, and in came the big reeking man. The poet does not scem, to have been inspired by this incident. One remembers that that good and great preacher of righteousness, the late Dr John Ker, Glasgow, was born in the Bield, and that there is a stained glass window to his memory in Tweedsmuir Kirk. One also remembers that Mr John Tod gathered some of the local colour for his "Bits from Blinkbonny" from this neighbourhood, as the late Jean L. Watson did for her "Bygone Days in Our Village" from Broughton,

But the sight of workmen dragging material up the hollow of this bill on the north side recalls our wandering fancy. There are, two, reasons, we find, for the work going on 600 feet above Talla reservoir. Two tanks are buried in the hillside at a great elevation, to give a head of water to actuate the valves in the inlet tower at the foot of the reservoir. The other purpose is to supply with water Victoria Lodge, that elegant building for the water man, and for Water Trust outings. It seems paradoxical, but true, that the Water Trust cannot supply their own building with water, as it is

situated at a level above the reservoir. The navvies huts in the vale of Talla have been disappearing; only scattered remnant remain, with the hall for meetings, which is to be painted and cleaned. The top of the dam across the valley is being finished up; so is the coping for the north side of the dyke near the outlet tower. We had watched the puddle trench rising during the ten years since, on a bright September day of 1895, the first sod was cut in Tweed valley by Lady Macdonald. Alas, she is gone, and so is Bailie Colston, and Bailie Archibald, and Mr Wilson, the engineer, and many another whose faces appeared in that photograph of the scene hanging in Tweedsmuir Manse. The process has been gradual. Yet to-day the outer face of the dam across the valley looks greener, with its grass-grown sides, than the peat on the hillside, which has assumed a yellowish tinge. First came the conduit, brick-lined to the thickness of 20 inches, to carry the Talla away into the hillside to the north, and to guide it back again into the original bed of the stream, leaving the workers free to build the dam. This conduit served the useful purpose of carrying the whole of Taila Water while the dam and puddle trench were in course of construction, and now, when the reservoir is all but finished. it holds the valves which regulate the Edinburgh water supply, and which also regulate the four million odd gallons of compensation water which still flows down the bed of Talla to join the Tweed. This conduit is plugged up in two places by brick work, built into tapered and recessed granite rings. Behind the first plug, which is placed at some fifty feet from the higher end, the conduit roof has been broken through, and the in-let tower has been built over this gap. thus affording access from the tower to the conduits beneath. In the sides of the in-let tower there are three "in-takes" to tap the water of the reservoir at whatever height it may be. These in-take" pipes, which pierce the sides of the inlet tower, all communicate with the vertical stand pipe, fixed in the central axis of the tower. Down this pipe the compensation water, as well as the town supply, falls. The vertical pipe turns horizontally along the bottom of the conduit. At the foct, at the bend, it carries a valve, which will regulate the compensation water for Tweed. This will gush forth into the invert of the conduit and pass through the second brick-work plug by a bell-mouthed pipe fixed in the brickwork. The Edinburgh supply passes along one of the two pipes supported on beams over the inverts. The unused pipe may be required at some future date, when the needs of Edinburgh

The

are greater. The valves are of double-faced type, and are to be raised or lowered by the hydraulic power, already alluded to, applied in cylinders at the top of the intake tower. supply for town purposes passes through the second brick-work plug, 18 feet thick, beyond which are another set of valves for use in emergency cases. The supply pipes, after following the conduit till clear of the embankment, rise into the measuring house. The water is measured and screened here, but the filtering must be done at Alnwick Hill.

It is only eight miles from Tweedsmuir up to Tweed Well, at Tweed Shaws, the source of the river. Here the venturous visitor may drink from the bowl of a cocoa-nut placed, when not in use, on a pole, and watch the infant waters start on their course of 103 miles to Berwickon-Tweed. The motors whizzing over these silent upper reaches of the Tweed, to or from Moffat, or Peebles, recall the coaching days, and the story of MacGeorge, who perished in the snow here while carrying the mails. Also Thomas Carlyle's dreary journeys from Dumfriesshire to Edinburgh, to one of which only his own eloquent pen can do justice. On 15th February, 1816, he gives his friend, Robert Mitchell, at Ruthwell Manse, this news of himself. "I was mounted on the roof of the coach in one of the most dismal days I ever saw. It snowed heavily; on our arrival at Erickstane particularly the roaring of the wind and the ocean of drift carried with it, together with the bellowings of the distracted coachman and the outlandish war whoops of two Irish doctors, who, along with myself, had dismounted till we should ascend the hill, formed a scene sufficiently wild. At the Broughton Inn, after a day of violent struggling, we finally stopped The kitchen. I remember, when we entered it, was filled with shepherds and carriers, and in the midst, like a breathing ice-berg, stood our guard." Carlyle describes in no very gracious terms the two Irishmen with whom he was to spend the night. One of them, a mummy-like individual, slept in the middle, Carlyle and the other man in Kilmarnock bonnet on either side of him. The mummy-like man was fain to cry during the night as he was squeezed as in a cheese press. "Marciful Heaven, preserve me Sowl-what will become of me now." The snow prevented the coach from going further, and so Carlyle trudged by Noble House and Leadburn Moor towards Edinburgh. Sir Thos. Dick Louder, when at the Crook Inn in the latter half of the eighteenth century, thought it cheerless and uninviting. He found a great change in the valley when he came back in